Cocktails and Dreams

Weddings, Food and Pakistanis

The other day I went to my nephews wedding..yeah i know how wierd that sounds, but he's older than me..anyways thats not the point. It was getting quite late, as it usually does in weddings here in Pakistan.It wasnt all that boring..but somehow, i was feeling left out..everyone was either busy meeting everyone else, posing infront of the cameras, with their spouses, or simply didnt bother to come..and i wasnt in any one of these categories..so just sat there..and waited for the food..( hey u cant blame me for that!)..time ticked by..and i waited some more...i went to the washroom, fixed my hair, came back and waited some more...seemed like an endless que from the brides family who had never seen what the front of a movie camera looked like..maybe there was some sort of adhesive left on the sofa..whatever the case, it was getting late, and i was getting hungry.... Theres a saying in urdu which signifies how hungry u are..."being so hungry that the mice are running in ur tummy"...and i could feel that even those had starved to death..............suddenly...without warning...there was a clatter of brass in the distance...i looked up and saw the waiters lifting the covers off the dinner pots....a momentary lapse in everyones breath...i looked around..everyone stopped what they were doing..they looked at the lineup of meals...then they looked at each other.....i heard a yodel from my back..." khanaa lag gayaa!!!" food has been served!!in an instant...the food tables were swarmed in a manner that would have made a beehive jealous....people of all ages attacked the bloody food..i wish we pakistanis had so much passion and fire in the better things in life..a 7 year old girl struggled to balance herself as she ran away with FIVE bottles of seven up in her hands...(even i find that risky to do!)...a 60 + uncle dished out a plate ful of custard...(hello dude! errr...the main course comes first!) a (age unknown due to excessive make up) woman pushed my little cousin out of the way and helped herself to half a plate of salads and dressings..(judging by her weight and size, maybe she should only be eating the cutlery ).....as i sat there, i was bewildered by the unbeliveable lunacy of people; their ridiculous temptation to eat till they explode...all stemming from one thing...make sure YOU are the one who loses..not they..hey if they gave ure son 250 rupees for his salami, then theyre gonna make sure they eat 700 rupees worth of food from his wedding..its sickening i tell u....i just sat there and waited until it got a bit cleard up...i felt the urge to do somethign i did a few weeks back...at another wedding...there was ice cream cake for desert and the stall was overflowing like ants around a sugar cube .... i had waited long enough and so i decided to finally get my share...i had hardly squeezed myself past five hungry wolves when i nearly got hit there by a whiff of a bone..i looked down to see a boy of hardly 6 years of age pushing his way through the crowd and jerking his elbow at anyone or anything which wasnt letting him through..he managed to push and step on the others towards the other side of the stall..waiting no more than 5 seconds, he realized he wasnt going to get anything from there..so he made his way back through the same crowd.......and in the same way. He came pushing and shoving and as soon as he came close to me, i did what i felt was my responsiblity towards this society. i took on the weight of civic justice on my shoulders and acted with the determination and strength of a dedicated civilian of the human community..................................................i stuck out my foot and tripped him.

posted by h@mMy! @ 9:03 PM