By Dr. Fiaz Maqbool Fazili

Dr. Iftikhar checked his watch, walked into the marriage hall at exactly 2 p.m., and found almost nobody there. 

The invitation had promised lunch “sharp 2:00 p.m.” Steaming copper vessels of wazwan sat ready, saffron and mutton filling the room, but five or six guests occupied a hall built for hundreds. 

The doctor checked the digital invitation on WhatsApp again, wondering if he had mistaken the date. He hadn’t. 

He had only mistaken the printed time for a promise.

Over the next hour, guests trickled in two by two, a slow procession Kashmiris know by heart. Only when organizers judged the crowd “respectable” did the tasht-e-naer, the basin and jug passed around for handwashing, finally make its rounds. 

Lunch began at 3:15 p.m., more than an hour past the promised hour. 

This scene plays out in wedding halls throughout the valley so often that it has stopped registering as strange. And that’s the real problem. 

What should feel like a broken promise now passes as part of everyday life.

The math gets worse the more you look at it. 

A 2 p.m. lunch routinely starts after 3:30. An evening........

© Kashmir Observer