Ramesh was a very fond person. He loved attending weddings because there was always good food arranged there. But what happened at this wedding changed his perspective on life.
The wedding was held in a big hotel in the city. Ramesh wore a shiny kurta and went straight toward the food pavilion. As soon as he stood in the queue, seeing the large vessels filled with food made him very happy.
First, he took a roti. As soon as the roti came into his hand, he thought, “Today I will enjoy myself.” But an elderly man standing nearby said, “Brother, you understand the real value of food when you eat wedding meals.”
Ramesh smiled and asked, “How?”
The old man said, “At home, roti is often wasted, but here you have to stand in a queue for five minutes just for one roti.”
Then Ramesh went to take dal. Seeing the huge dal pot, he felt as if he had found a treasure of gold. He put dal on his plate, tasted it, and said, “Wow, wedding dal tastes better than home-cooked dal.”
Then someone said from behind, “But here you not only taste the food, you also understand the real cost of living.”
Ramesh asked, “How?”
The man said, “At home, your wife may say too much water was added to the dal, but here you worry that the queue will end before the dal does.”
At the next counter, there was vegetables. Ramesh took only a little potato curry and thought that if he did the same at home, he could save the monthly budget.
While eating, Ramesh realized that in weddings, not only the stomach but also life’s accounting is understood. While eating sweets, he said, “Truly, today I understood the real value of food.”
After returning home, his wife asked, “How was the food?”
Ramesh said, “Very good… but I understood one thing—that in weddings, the stomach is filled, but the balance sheet of life is also calculated.”
RAJEEV VERMA 