Malbari Hotel.......An Old Man's Day Dreams

 

Think About It...!!!!!!!!! 

By Abdul Sattar Lakhana

It was another boring day as usual ,we had gathered at the malbari hotel gossiping aimlessly without any particular topic. All of a sudden our malbari surprised us, he bought as a plate dried dates (chuarrus )and sweet balls (ladoo).We were surprised or we may say shocked by his unexpected show of affection ,Yaqoob Kiria asked malbari why this hospitality ,malbari explained that his daughter wedding was solemenised today in his hometown in Malabar.

How come you are in Karachi and you daughter’s wedding Malabar. Malbari replied  that as her father my duty was ti provide the finance , I sent 100000 rupees last month, other matter of marriage are ladies responsibilities and interest and there was nothing.I could do by going there, I prayed for prosperous future for the newly wedding couple right here, my son in law works in Dubai ,he will take my daughter to Dubai after some time ."How much did you say you sent?" asked Siddiq Master," you sent only 100000 rupees!!!! ?" Yes said malbari ,that was more than enough my wife has saved about 2000 rupees out of that."" How many guests you invited at the dinner ?Master asked surprised,:"We don’t have lavish wedding dinners,some close relative   ladies come to our house and they are served with tea. Bride & groom are gifted with useful things like the,bride gets a wedding dress casting 1500 or so , “chaurrus”are distributed  at the time of nikah."

Siddiq master shook his head in disbelief he said,"my daughters wedding was solemenised about six months back .I had borrowed about 6 lac rupees from friends and relatives.Besides whatever I had saved, was also spent in this event." Malbari was shocked by siddiq’s statement. He asked what is so expensive in a marriage.Siddiq said about 2 lacs were spend on a modest dinner,we had to purchase full bed room furniture and electric gadgets like fridge DVD player microwave oven etc etc.Total comes to more than 4 lac rupees.Add to it the cost of 4 to five family dinners bridal dress, mehndi and beauty parlour expenses.This is the first phase of the expenses.After the marriage our son in law starts various demands .He may demand loan for motor bike and some money for business investments and more like that.We can not refuse otherwise our daughter will not be able to adjust in her house.'

 As this is not enough other relatives of son in law like his brothers,sisters and mother line up in a que to get some gold ornaments as gift.This costs further 2 lacs or more as you know the present rising cost of gold.Even then if a daughter can live in her house happily,its Allah’s blessings.

 "I have observed that some characters demand a house to live in.Thank God this demand is not wide-spread but some young man treat their marriage as a lottery ticket and demand everything that they are not able to provide for their bride.It does not end at that.When the couple is blessed with a child total expenses of child’s delivery and gifts for the little one costing thousands of rupees are to be provided by the bride’s parent.In older days people buried their girls alive for this reason.Just think that a girl’s parent have to manage about a million rupees for the child’s marriage.In this age of rising cost ,this is impossible for any poor or middle class family."said malbari and stood up to get back to his work. 

 Malbari has opened our eyes by giving his own example of simplicity and hostility.If we could follow  our Prophet Mohammad (S.A.W) all problems would vanish in thin air.