Malbari Hotel....An Old Man's Day dreams by Abdul Sattar Lakhana

I am an old man who has seen more than sixty birthdays. Generally consider persons above sixty, like broken furniture. Such persons are hardly welcomed in their own homes. The main reason for this is that the income is either reduced or entirely gone. The only thing such old persons can do is to get some friends and spend some time with them. My own experience is not any different. I am practically retired since few years. I am lucky to have a few friends of my age, my school fellows who like to spend a few hours with me in the afternoon.

If you have lived or have seen Karachi, you will understand that there are hardly any places where retired or jobless people can sit and pass the time. The parks  are barren and shady trees are nonexistent. Our quartet found out a small tea shop locally called Malbary hotel. I must tell you the names of my friends here they are Ghaffar Kapadia, Yaqoob Kiria and Siddiq Master. They call me DADA. We all four are sailors of the same boat.

This Malbari hotel is situated in an area called Kharadar near Bakda Hotel.We often gather at the hotel in the afternoon. This hotel is a small shop having hardly enough space to place a stove and a wash basin. The chairs and tables are spread out on the street.

Nowadays a cup of tea costs fifteen rupees. We all four hardly have any money to have tea.As we did not have any place to sit, we talked to the Malbari to get his permission to sit there without having tea .He consented but told us to have tea occasionally.This idea was liked by him because deserted hotel was not visited by many clients.When we four regularly sat there other people started coming in, that suited the Malbari.We started dicussing anything in this wide world and Malbari also joined in

It was 31^st December, the last day of the year so it was petty cold. I was lucky enough that day to have some extra money in my pocket and I could afford tea for four. I went to the Malbari hotel but none of my friends were there yet. As I settled down I saw Sidique master coming followed by Ghaffar kapadia.We were waiting for Kiria but here was no sign of him.After a while we so him coming, seemingly he was not in a good mood.We trued to cheer him up but he was very angry over some thing.Siddique master told him that Dada is paying for the tea today and that news cooled him down a bit!

As we ordered our tea Yaqoob slowly started his story.He was invited to a wedding dinner a day before.He reached the shadi Hall at 9.30 as were the timings on the invitation card, and was set back to see  no no one from the host family there, only a few workers from the hall management were decorating the stage for the bride and the groom. Yaqoob had to argue for a while to get in. Then he tried to call the host but could not get to him, he sat alone there until almost after an hour guests began to arrive. But he could not see the host yet. Some body told him he was busy at the other side.It took one more hour before the bride and the groom arrived. Yaqoob was feeling hungry and thought now he would have the dinner finally but that was only his dream. A round strange customs has started now. After a long wait every thing seemed to have settled down but no signs of  the dinner yet.Yaqoob looked for the host and asked him what is the matter we they are not serving dinner as it is getting very late. “Some important guests have not yet arrived”exclaimed the host.  Kiria was annoyed by this, “If I am not important why was I invited” Kiria lost his mind and shouted in loud voice

Other guests also joined in their voices and asked their host why he invited them if they were not important. Kiria was so furious that he walked out of the hall without having dinner

It was past midnight and there was no chance of getting anything at home so he found a cheap hotel that was open at that hour and had some thing to eat. Off course at his own expenses he vowed never to go to any invitation again.