Ever since I remember, I have observed that corpulent Memons and other rich men die after consuming excess meat in the Eid-al-Azha holidays. Such people already suffer from heart problems and they should be careful not to stuff themselves with high cholesterol stuff, particularly as they sincerely believe that walking is something to be avoided at all costs.
This year among the dead was a reputed journalist of Lahore (Arif Nizami) who died suddenly at the age of 74. Since I never met him, I can't say if he already had a weak heart, but his death may have been due to eating the meat of freshly killed sacrificial animals on Eid day.
Yousuf Uruswalla was diagnosed with Covid when they took him to hospital. He had heart disease, and it's certain that he never thought he would have a heart attack. So Covid almost certainly caused his heart to fail. I wasn't surprised when his son proudly proclaimed that neither he nor any member of his family had been vaccinated. In fact, the son himself had fever on the day they buried Yousuf. So you can be sure that the son infected others attending the burial.
I last met Yousuf on the first of July this year (24 days ago) at the funeral of my mother-in-law (he was unmasked). I saw him after a long time, as the Covid pandemic has restricted my movements for more than a year and a half. I always knew he was a ripe candidate for heart disease, even when I first met him in 1973-74. He was highly illiterate, I doubt if he'd even passed Matric, the basic requirement for entry into college. One day in 1981, I saw him with his two sons and asked him why they were with him and not in school at 9 o'clock in the morning. He said breezily that he'd got them admitted in a madressah because they didn't appear to be interested in modern education. I knew of course that school fees even in those days were rather high and that was the reason he put them in a madressah (where the education doesn't cost much).
About twelve years back, he had to undergo heart bypass surgery, and had to sell his club membership for half a million to pay for the operation. Like most stupid people, he apparently thought that after the surgery there was no need to continue with the prescribed medication or to be physically active. So he had to pay the ultimate penalty. If he'd been educated, he might have been more careful, but spending his spare time in the Binoria mosque meant he came in contact with illiterate men who told him it was useless to take the pills he needed to keep him healthy.
Another Memon (a member of the
club whom I didn't know) also popped off during these holidays. And many people
in Lahore had to be hospitalized after eating sacrificial meat (I don't know
how many died). My two brothers and I cancelled our bi-annual Eid dinner, the
fourth Eid that we have done so. As for myself, I ate only vegetables and a
couple of chicken meat pieces, in fact I made my wife's nephew very angry by
refusing to go to his house for dinner on the third day of Eid. The main reason
of course was that among the guests were the kind of people who flout the
government directives to wear masks and not get too close to others. This,
despite the fact that among their relatives was a 55 year old woman who died of
Covid not long ago. She was the wife of Wahab, the head of the Tableeghi Jamaat
in Karachi. But, as I said, illiteracy and fundamentalism among Memons is very
high, so no one can talk logic with them.
Post a Comment