My First Book Of Fruity Fiction 446ta

My first book

of

Fruity fiction

A reminder to humanity:

God grows fruit gardens

Grower only harvests

Author

Feroz Ali Meghaney

Copyright

This written material is not copyrighted.

February 2021

License Notes

This Ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you would like to share this ebook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Preface

This is my first book of fiction. Word ‘Fruity’ in the book title is a reminder to all my readers that God has given mankind limitless bounties; plants and trees are one of them. With the progress in botanical sciences, fruits and vegetables are emerging into more prominent roles in maintaining human health. Each has different combination of nutrients, its study may be extremely engaging for botanical scientists - for others botanical miracles present a fascinating world in itself. I have adopted storytelling format to highlight health benefits of eating fruits on daily basis. While adding the fruity juice of humor in my story I have made an attempt to highlight the need to replace bad food on our dining tables with good food - change bad eating habits with good ones, and enjoy benefits of a healthy body and a healthy mind. Happy reading.

Feroz Ali Meghaney Karachi, February 2021.

Chapter One

FAMILY

Birth of Grandson

The news was so sweet, Azad wanted to buy sweet fruits to distribute among of both the families. He stopped at the fruit vendor for a moment, scanned fresh fruits of the season. He knew both the families would not like to eat fruits at that happy event. He walked past the fruit vendor reluctantly towards the large popular sweets shop. He went inside the shop, purchased sweets and left the shop quickly to the families. Azad crossed both the roads and walked fast to reach maternity home gate. He had in his hands a large box of freshly cooked hot ‘Gulab Jamun’ purchased from the popular sweets shop opposite the maternity home gate. Two families - his family and his son-in-law’s family - were greeting each other and were waiting for the sweets. Azad walked quickly past the gate and moved towards glass entrance door. He felt as if the distance between the gate and the entrance was too long. He was very happy since he heard the good news. At last, the entrance door came and through its glass wall Azad saw of both the families talking in happy mood. He quickly entered the entrance door and congratulated everybody. He gave the sweets box to his nurse daughter to distribute sweets to all. He saw younger brother of his son-in-law and greeted him. He took out his smart phone from his pocket, opened a fresh page in ‘Notes’ app and started typing: ‘28 Sep 2017 - Birth date of my grandson’. Azad saw through the corridor glass door. His son-in-law was coming with happy face after having a first look of his baby son. Azad hugged and congratulated him. He informed everybody both mother and baby were

okay. He showed born baby’s pictures to all. “How did you get these pictures? They don’t allow taking pictures of born babies”, his younger brother queried. “The attending nurse was busy with a crying child and I got the opportunity to take few pictures” he confided to his brother. After about two hours the family were allowed to meet mother and born-baby in the ward. Everybody was happy to see new-born healthy baby. Azad was very happy because he had got a grandson. While coming back home his wife and his daughter talked about the baby. Azad had been thinking all the way back home how he would play with his grandson.

Azad

Azad is a date-grower, his date farm is located in Khairpur district. He inherited date-farm from his father’s huge agricultural land property, divided equally among Azad and his six brothers after his father’s death forty years ago. None of his brothers liked to earn living as fruit grower like Azad so all of them sold their lands in the same year they inherited the lands. Two of his brothers ed the army, one brother purchased a book shop in Urdu Bazaar, two brothers purchased a running whole-sale business unit of motor cycle parts opposite Radio Pakistan Karachi station. One brother migrated to Canada, married there and has a son and a daughter studying in US. Azad, being the eldest son of his father, used to accompany his father since he was a child of 12. He helped his father in managing his father’s fruit farms and learned the art of date-farming from his father. Azad ed his tenth grade from his village school. He did not go to high school and continue his studies beyond tenth grade as he felt the responsibility to help his father in his farm works. Azad is a father of a son and two daughters. His marriage was an arranged one with his distant relative’s daughter. The family of his father-in-law was

settled in Khairpur since long. Azad stays on his date-farm on weekdays to look after it and manage date harvest. He has been selling his dates to his friend, a wholesale fruit seller in Khairpur. On weekends he remains with his family in Khairpur. Azad’s father was a religious man. Azad, being the eldest son and always with his father since he left his studies, his father took all the care to teach him religion and ensured that Azad followed all practices of religion punctually. Azad was now a religious man like his father and followed all practices of his religion punctually. Azad is a man of principle. He prefers simplicity in life and keeps himself away from ostentations. His wife cares utmost to keep him happy and she too lives a simple life.

Wife Azad’s wife was a fashionable lady before her marriage. She took great care how she looked while choosing dresses. She was an elegant lady with attractive looks and curly long hair. She always wore matching and perfect body fitting dresses with matching ladies footwear, matching nail polish and light but perfectly matching cosmetics and artificial jewelries. She did not visit beauty parlor every fortnight or month, like other girls of her time, yet she looked more beautiful than those girls who were regular in their beauty clinic visits. She knew that healthy balanced diet can give you soft skin and glowing face. So she never missed to add fresh fruits in her daily diet. She used to freeze pomegranate seeds and devour them frozen after dinner. In short, she loved her healthy body and took all the care to maintain her beauty. She loved cooking and learned recipes of favorite dishes of her family from her mother. Her father was in the business of barbecue and fast food. She learned to prepare delicious ‘Shaami Kabaab’ and ‘Chutney’ from her father. Soon she became expert in cooking almost all dishes her family loved to eat. After marriage, she became a simple housewife and proved a very loving

wife for her husband. She cooked food of her husband’s choice. She could do fast cooking and prepared breakfast for her husband and also prepared sandwich or burger or cook vegetable dish for her husband’s lunch at his office - while he ate his breakfast. After she became mother, her sacrifices for her family increased manifold. Her love was divided between her husband and her children equally. She left parties earlier but never missed or delayed her infant child’s meal or sleep. When her children grew up to the age of demanding ready-made fast food, she always stood by her husband and avoided purchasing unhygienic cooked food sold in shops and restaurants. Instead, she cooked home-made delicious food to satisfy her children’s taste. Now she is grandmother - a grandson born to her elder daughter and a granddaughter born to her daughter-in-law. It seems as if she has dedicated all her love for her grandchildren. She buys gifts, toys, dresses for her grandchildren on their birthdays.

Nurse Daughter Azad’s youngest daughter did her BScN 4-year degree from a healthsciences university of Karachi, completed her one-year internship as nurse in the university hospital and got herself ed as qualified nurse with the provincial nursing council. She has been doing nurse job in a private hospital of Khairpur for four years and is now among the senior staff nurses. With her hard work she rose to the position of managing vvip ward of the hospital. She is unmarried and lives with her parents. She is fond of eating fresh and dried fruits. In absence of them both, she eats junk foods privately in her room. Her father delivers his ‘Hygienic Food’ lecture to her whenever he spots her eating junk foods. To break her daughter’s habit of eating junk foods Azad gave her a bottle of pumpkin seeds. He informed her the pumpkin seeds, in addition to many health benefits, were high in magnesium and can be eaten raw or roasted, salted or unsalted. Pumpkin seeds can be sprinkled over salad, soup and yogurt. He then also gave her a bottle of sunflower seeds and informed her that the seeds were rich in

vitamin E besides other health benefits and can be added in meat or vegetable dishes during cooking. “You can also add sunflower seeds powder or flour in bread batter to make your bread extra nutrient” explained Azad to her daughter and expected full stop to her junk foods. Her mother cooks the dishes which are her daughter’s favorite and always keeps fruit basket full for her hard working daughter. That day her mother had prepared fried chicken liver and pasta for her nurse daughter. Her job demands working in shifts - morning, afternoon and night - during each week. If she is at home on weekends, she s family gatherings with her elder sister’s family. She has developed friendship with her three-andhalf-year nephew. She often makes online purchases of toys and children’s books for her nephew. She takes all the care of her parents and her elder sister - purchases medicines from her hospital pharmacy, makes online purchase of dresses, slippers, kitchen utensils and dry fruits - all from her salary. While visiting supermarket a year back, she purchased a pair of leather shoes for her father. Few months ago, she bought BP machine for her mother and her sister, and last month, she bought steamer for her family from hospital pharmacy.

Birthday cake Azad’s elder daughter brought a birthday cake one weekend to celebrate birthday of her younger sister. Though the birthday ed a few days back on a weekday, both the sisters decided to celebrate it on next weekend visit. It was a chocolate fudge cake of a famous bakery. She took out the large cake from its box and put it on one side of the dining table. She placed the knife, sparkler and the match box beside the cake and called everybody to the birthday party. Everybody gathered around the dining table. Azad’s son-in-law took few snaps of the cake with his phone camera and then started recording movie of the ceremony. Birthday girl lighted the sparkler and picked her threeand-half-year nephew in her hands to show him burst of sparkles. His eyes sparkled with excitement. Then she gave the boy to his mother and cut the

cake among loud clapping of the family . Her nephew yelled pointing his finger at the red dots sprinkled over the cake, “I want jelly!” “It is cherry, not jelly!” mother corrected her son. Birthday girl collected few cherries in a bowl and gave to her nephew. Then she served everybody with large cake pieces. Everybody liked the cake.

Engineer Son Azad’s son is an automobile engineer working in a car manufacturing unit in Karachi. He studied 4-year BE degree program from an engineering university in Karachi and got his first job in a Japanese car manufacturing plant in Karachi. He married to his class fellow and now has a four-year daughter. The family is residing in Karachi. His company sent him with his family to Bangkok for one-year training of a new car model planned to be launched in Pakistan. After completion of his training in Bangkok the company gave him production related responsibilities of the new car model. At the next weekend after arrival of his son from Bangkok, Azad’s married daughter came with her family and everybody had lunch together. Azad’s son opened fridge door and took out a new kind of fruit he had brought from Bangkok and put it in the center of the dining table. “This is called dragon fruit. It is one of the popular fruits of Thailand”, said the son. Everybody liked the taste of the Thai fruit. While talking about his stay in Bangkok he often mentioned to his father that during weekdays people in Bangkok eat food from food vendors while going back home from work. Both husband and wife work during weekdays to earn their living. They do home cooking only on weekends. He informed that in Bangkok one would find food vendors throughout the city selling different varieties of fast foods. “People eat fried fruit pieces coated with flour - like ‘pakora’ - from food vendors while going home from work”, he told his father.

“Look! They are also fond of eating such dried fruits”, he said and handed few bags to his father. Azad was surprised to see dried banana chips, dried apple chips, dried melon chips and dried mango chips in different bags - all reading ‘manufactured and packed in Thailand’. Azad was looking at dried fruit bags and comparing eating habits of his countrymen fond of eating ‘Nimko’ (fried salted beans). Azad’s son was on two-weeks leave and the family was visiting his parents in Khairpur. His son was fond of eating ready-made fried foods, confectioneries and bakery products. When Azad reached home in the morning this weekend he found his son eating ‘Samosa’ and ‘Jaleybe’. “Do you know these ready-made fried foods are unhygienic and unhealthy?” said Azad to his son. “Father, I believe one must also eat some unhygienic foods in order to keep one’s immune system working. Look! If you keep eating only hygienic foods your immune system will go on a long sleep. No bacterias to kill! To keep my immune system active and working against harmful bacterias I eat unhygienic foods along with home-cooked hygienic foods” explained his son. “Have you ever sent this theory of yours to world food and health sciences forums and got them agreeing to it?” Azad queried his son with disbelief over his self-generated theory. “Mummy, I am going to the mechanic for my car repair. Do you want anything from the market?” his son said to his mother and swiftly walked to the house door. “Yes. One dozen ‘Samosa’ for my sleeping immune system!” yelled Azad at his son with irony.

Married Daughter Azad’s elder daughter is an MBA in Marketing, working as lecturer in a university campus in Khairpur. She was married in Khairpur five years ago in a middle-income religious family.

She regularly visits her parents on weekends with her husband. Since the birth of a son about three-and-half years ago, she has been bringing him too with her on each weekend visit to her mother. During weekdays she keeps with her mother through phone calls. She makes phone calls to her mother once or twice every day and inquires about her health. She used to send pictures and videos of her infant son to her mother. When her son grew up to the age of three, she started teaching her son to talk with his grandmother on video call. Her husband Ali drives his wife and his son to his mother-in-law’s home in his Toyota car each weekend and spends several hours with his wife’s family. Before her marriage, she was not fond of cooking like her mother. But after marriage, she developed interest in cooking and learned all favorite dishes of her husband’s family from her mother-in-law. She has been hardworking lady since her college days and therefore, she had no problem in bearing more responsibilities after marriage as a married woman. And now as a mother her household duties have increased manifold. When Azad once saw her daughter applying cheese from ’Happy Cow’ labeled container - an imported cheese from Austria - to a bread slice to feed her three-year-old son, he cautioned her, “Recently the news is circulating that imported butter and cheese are prepared with pork fat. Better if you feed your son home-made butter.” “Daddy, nobody prepares butter at home in this busy age”, replied his daughter. “Your mummy prepares home-made butter”, informed Azad readily. “There is no pork fat in ‘Happy Cow’ cheese. I checked it from Google”, came a blunt reply. Azad was speechless. He had not checked it from Google. But then he thought how is it possible for anyone to check purity - whether ‘Halaal’ (allowed) or ‘Haraam’ (banned) for Muslims - of every imported food we eat. And how anybody can check purity of the imported butter, cheese and other ingredients added in pizza. Pizzas are being sold in hotels, restaurants and now also online. It is almost impossible!

“Your mummy has prepared home-made butter few days ago. Try it for your son!”, Azad gathered some courage and said to his daughter. “My son does not eat home-made butter. I have tried once”, she replied readily and turned to her mom, “Mummy, will you please hold my phone screen towards my son? He will eat while watching his favorite nursery rhyme ‘May Tota’!” she requested her mother and handed her mother the phone. Azad’s wife held phone screen facing his grandson to watch the rhyme while eating.

Son-in-law Azad’s son-in-law is working in a locally based foreign firm doing countrywide online sales of household items, groceries, fruits and vegetables. He drives his wife and his son to his mother-in-law’s home in his Toyota car each weekend and spends several hours with his wife’s family. Azad observed that his son-in-law is very conscious about his son’s dressings and took keen interest in dressing his son elegantly with matching clothes and shoes. While making purchases he was also careful in selecting matching shirts, pants and shoes for himself so that both father and son have matching garments and shoes. Azad’s son-in-law gives special attention to his son’s demands of toys and games. The son demands from his father toy vehicles whenever he views any real vehicle running on the road which he has not in his collection of toy vehicles. On each weekend visit grandson shows his grandfather the new toy vehicle his father gave him and teaches its functions to his grandfather. The grandson has now a large collection of toy vehicles - vespa bike, police motor bike, police car, taxi car, jeep, ambulance, school bus, dump truck, land excavator, tow crane, cement mixer and many small toy cars of different colors. Father purchased for his son many educational games like cut-out alphabets, numbers, cartoon puzzle games. Azad’s grandson is smart enough to arrange cut-out puzzle games within minutes. Once the grandson brought from his home his stock of imported colorful books of animals, birds, numbers and shapes which he got from his nurse aunt on his third

birthday. Azad was surprised to know that his grandson knew names of almost all animals and birds. Azad’s grandson learned to switch on her mother’s smart phone and play nursery rhyme of his choice on YouTube. Then he learned to install children’s games and started playing them after few errors. Then he learned to remove games he did not like. Then he learned to make calls through WhatsApp, the application his mother uses to talk to her mother. All this learning took place on his own, nobody taught him. Also the grandson has learned to switch on and off the room lights and fans. Azad plays with his grandson each weekend. Both grandson and grandfather enjoy each other’s company the whole time and play all sorts of children’s games inside the house. Grandson calls his grandfather ‘My Best Friend’. They both play games like hide and seek, throwing balls in the basket, hitting empty plastic bottles with push-back toy cars, playing with fishing game, sticking magnetic toy butterflies together like hugging, drawing lines with colorful pens, coloring pictures with color pencils, arranging cut-out English Alphabet letters and cartoon puzzle games. Azad plays as his partner in all his games. Grandmother gave her grandson the gift of six colorful balls placed inside a basket. Seeing this gift Azad got an idea to play basket ball with his grandson. He made his grandson to sit on bed and throw balls in the basket one by one. Azad was more than surprised to see that his grandson threw each ball in the basket precisely. Azad observed that his grandson had skill of throwing the ball at its target each time and hitting target obstacles with push-back toy cars each time. The family of Azad’s son-in-law is very social. The family makes regular visits to near relatives and attends social events among friends and relatives.

Elder Sister Azad’s elder sister lives within walking distance from his house. He visits his elder sister very often. His brother-in-law has a sweet tooth and the family often prepares home-made sweet dishes. While at sister’s home once, his sister offered Azad to have the freshly prepared home-made sweet dish.

Azad took a bite to taste and found it very sweet due to high sugar content. And there, Azad delivered his ‘Healthy and Balanced diet’ lecture to the family and tried to convince his sister and brother-in-law to avoid sweet dishes and increase their fruit intake to keep healthy. “It is home-made sweet dish. It is hygienic. No adulterations. Isn’t it what you advise?” his sister remarked. “And it is made from pure butter”, his brother-in-law added to his wife’s remark. “Don’t you both have Lifetime NICs of NADRA?” asked Azad, “What does it mean?” “It means we are above sixty years of age. So what? We are not sugar patients” said his sister. “I have Lifetime NIC too, I am also above sixty years of age. This is the age we all must take great care of our health. Stop eating extra sugar and extra salt. They both are harmful to our health. Use molasses instead of sugar, if you must. Reduce salt intake to half” said Azad. “Drink this! It is made from pure orange juice. I bought it yesterday. And this is according to your hygienic food advice”, said his brother-in-law and took out a chilled can from the fridge and handed to Azad. Azad observed that it was an imported orange juice can. He started reading its origin and found it was imported from Philippines. “Don’t drink imported fruit juices! They have preservatives which may be harmful and they are much more costly than the local fruits. Besides, our country has to pay its import price in dollars. Instead, eat sweet lemon, orange, grapes, apple, banana, plum, apricot - all are available locally and are cheap. Elderly people and small children should eat fruits; they should not drink fruit juices. They may drink only one juice, that is coconut juice”, explained Azad to both his sister and his brother -in-law.

Younger Sister

Azad’s younger sister lives in US with her husband. She migrated to US about four decades ago and married there. She has a son and a daughter. She has made several visits to Azad’s family in Pakistan with her husband during this period. Her recent visit to Azad’s home was just few months ago. Her husband had some important business assignments in US so she had to travel alone. It was her second day after arrival at Azad’s home and she was at a super market as usual to do some shopping for herself and her husband. It was weekend, family of Azad’s married sister was also at Azad’s home. When Azad reached home in the evening with some fruits for her guest sister, he found a take-away food box placed in the center of the dining table. Something yogurt mixed food was visible through the transparent box. “Look what I have brought for you today”, his sister said coming out of the room when she saw Azad. His sister opened the box and pushed it towards Azad. It was popular food item locally known as ‘Dahi Baray’. He took a spoonful to taste it, he felt it very spicy. And there, Azad started to deliver his ‘Healthy and Balanced diet’ lecture to his guest sister. “Wait! I have one more item for you”, his sister interrupted him. She rushed to the kitchen and brought another box of the same size and placed before Azad saying, “Have a ‘Gol Guppa’! It has sweet sauce inside.” Azad ate one from the box. It was delicious with sweet and sour taste - mix of dates and tamarind sauces. “We crave for such foods in US” his sister remarked. Azad’s grandson swiftly came near the food box with is small unbreakable plate and demanded, “I want ‘Gol’ and ‘Guppa’ both!” “I have brought some fruits for you”, said Azad and took out oranges, plums and custard apples from the bags. His sister took a ripe custard apple, halved it, shared one half with Azad’s wife, and started eating her half. Azad’s nurse daughter was at home and ed the family having ‘Dahi Baray’ and ‘Gol Guppay’.

“What is in this large bag?” asked his wife. “It is Pumpkin. Will somebody cut it in small pieces?” said Azad. He put pumpkin on the table. His sister brought plates and a knife from the kitchen, cut the pumpkin in small pieces and collected pumpkin seeds in a plate. “I will dry it in sunshine and prepare a nice mouth-fresher from these seeds”, his sister announced. Next day, his sister went for shopping as usual. When she returned she had that take-away food box in one hand and few bags in another. She put the food box on the table and went in her room to get fresh. In the evening everybody collected around the dinning table to have some time together. Few days were left in departure of his guest sister. She opened the food box and put some in Azad’s plate. It was ‘Bhel Puree’ - a popular local snack food. Everybody enjoyed the evening snack-party of ‘Bhel Puree’. Next day when Azad came home he had fruit bags as usual in his hands. “I have a surprise for you, brother!”, said his guest sister. She gave Azad a glass bottle of pumpkin seeds mixed with other seeds and nuts. Azad opened the bottle and poured some in his palm and ate it. “Awesome good taste!” remarked Azad. “Give me its recipe.” “It is very simple. I mixed pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, fennels, raisins, broken peanuts and almonds in a frying pan, and added some salt while roasting at slow heat over the stove” she explained the recipe. Everybody in the house liked the taste of mouth-fresher prepared from pumpkin seeds. Azad’s grandson said, “I want jelly”, and pointed his finger at the raisins visible through the glass bottle.

Chapter Two

EATING HABITS

Wedding Parties Azad and his family reached at the venue of the wedding party an hour late than the time mentioned on invitation card. His cousin had invited Azad’s family to celebrate marriage of his elder daughter. On reaching the venue the family got surprise - the hall was empty except few elderly couples who were near relatives of the host waiting to welcome the guests. Azad’s family received welcome smiles and handshakes from them and the family took seats facing the wedding stage. In an hour’s time all seats were occupied by the invitees and at the close another hour’s waiting the bride and bridegroom arrived at the entrance gate. Newly wedded couple walked slowly towards the stage in a manner a king and a queen would take their royal walk towards their royal seats for throne accession ceremony. The slow-walk was a reminder to everybody and the couple’s determination that they would be extra careful while walking over the treacherous paths of this worldly life. Food was served after three hours waiting to the punctual guests. It was past midnight and the guests rushed to the food tables. There were meat dishes - chicken, mutton, beef and fish. Hot ‘Naans’ were in covered pots besides meat dishes. Soft drink bottles of all popular brands were in crates on all tables. There was a table for ice-creams of different flavors and a table filled with colorful cakes of different flavors in each corner. Guests filled their plates with more foods than they could eat. It looked as if they had never eaten such lavish and rich in taste food before. Soon the guests finished eating and started leaving the party. Azad had a habit of scanning tables and check left-over foods of the guests before leaving the party. There too, Azad walked around few tables and saw half-filled left-over food plates on every table. On one table he spotted a plate half-filled with ‘Biryaani’

and a big piece of cake. It seemed the guest must have feared losing his cake share while having ‘Biryaani’, but the poor guy could not eat cake after having a heavy load of ‘Biryaani’ meal. Azad and his family greeted wedded couple and the host couple and gave them gift money. The family was now ready to leave and moved towards entrance gate. The time was one o’clock midnight. Azad was surprised to find rush of guests at the gate. They had placed few tables at the gate. The tables were filled with sweet ‘Paan’ wrapped in colorful wrappers and sachets of ‘Supari’ and other mouth-fresheners were also spread all over the tables. On his way back home Azad recalled a wedding party where the rich host had arranged musical group with male, female singers in addition to such lavish foods. One rich host had arranged a lavish wedding party besides a swimming pool in a big hotel. The guests were also invited to take a plunge in water, if they so desired, before their midnight meal. Then he recalled a wedding party he had attended where, in addition to rich foods, there were also fruit tables laden with all kinds of seasonal fruits. Melons and mangoes were cut decoratively and placed in big bowls ready to eat. In that party Azad enjoyed watching guests holding in their hands apples, oranges, bananas, sweet lemons, pomegranates - as many as they could after filling their plates with nicely cut melons and mangoes. Thanks to the host of that party as he had arranged to separate the bananas from their bunches. Else, guests would have picked whole bunches of twelve or fifteen bananas to eat at home. It seemed to him that most people loved eating fruits. He ed he had said to his cousin seated next to him, “Look! We all are fruit-lovers.” And his cousin had replied, “We are food-lovers, not fruit-lovers. They are collecting fruits as if they have never eaten fruits before.” Azad pondered over the truth his cousin had mentioned. We are normal humans displaying good manners and etiquettes everywhere. But when we are at some food party we leave aside all good manners and etiquettes and jump on the foods like a hungry bear. Azad recalled he had spotted a guest filling his coat pockets with apples. And there was a lady guest at that party who had filled her large bag full of fruits up to the top. He saw her husband carrying the bag on his shoulder as its handles had got broken due to heavy load. There

too, Azad walked besides few tables and saw half-filled plates with left-over foods on the tables. But surprisingly he did not find any left-over fruit on any tables.

Pizza Both families have refreshments or dinner together on each weekend visit. The food is home-cooked as Azad avoids purchasing cooked food from outside. Ever since Azad has witnessed several TV programs bringing facts to public notice of growing food adulteration incidents in the country he decided to keep himself and his family reserved to home-cooked foods only and avoid all sorts of foods sold outside. And also he made some type of commitment with himself to advise everybody within and outside his family to prefer home-cooked foods only. According to those TV programs many food processing and food selling units including milk shops, bakeries, restaurants are committing food adulteration without fear of law. This offence is on the rise due to corrupt officials in the ministry of food and agriculture. In last two family gatherings Azad observed that Ali, his son-in-law, gave online food orders for family dinner. Pizza boxes arrived within minutes. Azad’s elder daughter served her father a quarter piece of pizza in a plate, saying, “Father, it is all soft and without chillies. You will like it.” Azad ate the pizza piece, musing how to bring both families back to homecooked foods. Both families enjoyed their pizza dinner. Azad ed he had purchased bananas today while coming home. He brought banana plate from the dining table and gave two bananas to his son-in-law who could not refuse. His grandson abruptly moved close to banana plate and tried to pluck up one banana from the its bunch saying, “I want banana”. Azad plucked up one banana from banana bunch and gave to his daughter to peel and feed her son. She peeled the banana and started feeding small bites to her son. Everybody was looking at the child’s happy face. Azad started explaining banana benefits to the family and himself ate two bananas.

Bakery Products On her next weekend visit Azad’s daughter brought bakery biscuits. Refreshment table was laid with assorted biscuits in plates. There were biscuits with a small jelly dots in the center, biscuits with tiny chocolate chips, zeera sprinkled biscuits, puffed biscuits and pastries. There was a plate full of ‘Jaleybe’ placed in the center. Soon family took seats around the refreshment table. Azad was melancholy looking at the refreshment table that had no fruits. “I better stop growing dates and set up a bakery instead”, exclaimed Azad and put a biscuit in his plate. Everybody started having refreshments and gave no attention to what Azad said. “Father, taste this! I prepared it from a recipe my friend sent me few days ago”, said Azad’s daughter while dropping some red-color jam in his plate from a glass bottle and she put a spoon in the plate. Azad took some jam in his spoon and tasted it. “Hey, it is date-jam. Isn’t it?” exclaimed Azad. “Yes, I have prepared specially for you. I will leave the bottle here. I also got recipe of plum-jam which I will prepare next week and bring for you”, she said. “I have brought fresh dates for your family. Your mother has packed them for you in a container”, Azad was more than glad to eat date-jam prepared by his daughter. When Azad’s daughter informed him that her son was not drinking water as usual Azad went into the kitchen and brought a coconut he had purchased today, made a hole in coconut-eye and filled his grandson’s water bottle with milky juice of coconut. His grandson drank coconut juice and emptied the water bottle in a jiffy.

Raisin

Soon Azad got the opportunity to deliver his ‘Hygienic Food’ sermon to both the families. On one weekend when Azad came home he was glad to see his grandson at his home. The family of his married daughter was on their usual weekend visit. Both the grandson and the grandfather were soon busy playing grandson’s toys and games. When refreshments were served Azad and his grandson also ed the family. Azad saw ‘Samosa’ and ‘Jaleybe’ were also among other things served on the table. Azad went to the dining table and brought figs stored in a plastic box. Addressing everybody he said, “Figs are made by God and Jaleybe are made by man. Which one will you all choose to eat? Figs definitely!” he concluded and everybody listened. His son-in-law agreed loudly, “Yes, indeeed!” Azad did not want to miss this golden opportunity. He dashed to the fridge, brought a polythene bag full of peanuts and said, “God made peanuts and man made peanut biscuits. Which one will you all choose to eat? Peanuts definitely!”. He dashed again to the fridge. Everybody was surprised to see head of their family in this strange act. This time Azad brought a polythene bag half filled with raisins. He continued his sermon, “God made raisins and man made chocolate chips. Which one will you all choose to eat? Raisins definitely!” he concluded. His grandson said loudly, pointing to the raisins, “I want jelly!” Azad dropped few raisins in his grandson’s plate and the child picked one raisin, put it in his mouth and looked at his grandfather with his happy face. “The poem is ‘God made the country and man made the town’. Not what you compiled!” said Azad’s wife smilingly. Then she put a Jaleybe in her plate, picked up a Samosa, dipped it in tomato ketchup and started eating. Everybody was now busy eating Samosa with tomato ketchup. Tea was served in nice tea cups placed in a large tray.

Nut Cracking Azad’s youngest daughter had made online shopping of almonds and walnuts - one kilogram each. On a weekend when Azad reached home he saw two polythene bags filled with almonds and walnuts. This gave him an idea. As usual, his elder sister came in the evening with her son and husband. Grandson was more than happy to see his grandfather at home;

he held his grandfather’s hand and demanded to play with him. Azad had planned to do nut cracking before his grandson that weekend. “We will play a new game today”, said Azad to his grandson and went in the kitchen and brought few almonds, few walnuts and a wooden pestle to crack nuts with. Azad sat on the carpet and put things in front of him. His grandson swiftly sat on the carpet facing Azad. The child was looking puzzled, observing carefully what new game his grandfather is going to play with him. All family gathered around to watch. Azad held a walnut with shell on in his hand and said to his grandson aloud, audible to everybody, “Now I will break its shell and find what is inside its shell. Look carefully!” Azad hit the walnut with the pestle with force and out came the walnut kernel from the shell. Azad gave the walnut kernel to his grandson to feel the nut. Then Azad repeated his action and cracked an almond. His grandson enjoyed watching this activity of nut cracking. Azad hid the pestle swiftly under the table behind him before his grandson would get hold of it. Since everybody’s attention was towards Azad at the moment, he started his ‘Hygienic Food’ sermon with these words: “Whole nuts are hygienic than shelled nuts. How? Let me explain to you. Because you buy the whole nuts (almonds, cashew nuts, groundnuts, pine nuts, pistachios, walnuts) with shells on them. You bring home and crack them all with your homely clean tools. You separate their kernels from their shells, you do quality checking and store them in a clean bottle with your clean hands. For your sweet tooth buy raisins, wash them clean in water filled pot, dry and add them to the nuts. Thus, you get a bottle full of clean, hygienic nuts ready to eat. Also, this exercise is a lot of fun and learning for our children, like it was for my grandson. Isn’t it?” At this, Azad stopped for a moment to observe reactions of his listeners. Then he continued: “Compare this with cracked, mixed, shelled assorted nuts packed in printed polythene bags by workers of small units of cottage industries doing most of the works manually, for example: 1. Unhygienic nut cracking, shelling and quality checking.

2. Unhygienic mixing and packing of nuts in bags. 3. No fun and learning for our children.

Do you all feel the difference?”

“One more difference you missed, father!” interrupted his son-in-law. “Nut cracking may give practical example of popular English proverb: ‘A hard nut to crack’!”

Azad could see smiles on every face. He smiled too. He was satisfied. At last his message went through.

Chapter Three

AQUAINTANCES

Uncle Pumblechook Uncle Pumblechook, Azad’s paternal uncle, was running a bakery in Khairpur - an inherited business from his father. Because of his family business he had developed habit of eating more bakery products and little home-cooked food. Azad used to visit uncle Pumblechook and aunt often. The couple was childless. When Azad visited uncle and aunt last weekend he found his uncle eating bakery products as usual. Azad saw a big creamy cake in one plate and bakery biscuits in another plate - both plates placed before the uncle. Uncle was taking bites from both plates. As usual, Azad advised his uncle to avoid eating bakery products and increase fruit intake in his daily meal. “You mean to say that I eat all your dates so that my fortune goes in your pocket” roared uncle angrily. “No, no. Not at all. I suggest that you eat more fruits and less biscuits and cakes”, said Azad calmly. “Azad is right. Look at your pot belly!” aunt ed Azad. “Taste this! It is new product of my bakery”, said uncle and pushed the plate with biscuits towards Azad. Azad ate a biscuit from the plate. “How was the taste?” uncle asked. “Good! But not better than the dates I have brought for you from my farm”, said Azad and put a box of dates on the table. “And this is homemade date-jam my elder daughter prepared and brought to my place last

weekend”, said Azad and put a jar on the table. “So you are on your date-marketing visit. Aren’t you?” said uncle gazing at Azad. Azad knew his uncle was hot-tempered. “These are gifts for you and my aunt”, said Azad with a confused mind and started drinking tea from the cup his aunt had placed for him on the table. “Give Azad the two paper bags of biscuits that I brought home today”, said uncle in a loud voice to his wife who was working in the kitchen. “I want you to eat biscuits of my bakery and give me your product-quality on your next visit!”, said uncle with piercing eyes fixed at Azad’s face. “I must leave now. I have to buy cake for my family”, said Azad with the confused state of mind, saying ‘cake’ instead of ‘carrot’. He abruptly stood up from his chair and started walking swiftly towards the door. “Don’t forget to take biscuits bags from your aunt in the kitchen”, uncle reminded Azad loudly. “Take these two bags with you. I have put few small cakes for your grandson”, said his aunt from behind. Azad heard his aunt’s voice and turned back reluctantly. He went to the kitchen, lifted two paper bags full of biscuits and cakes and made a hasty exit from the house.

Friend Salem While in Khairpur on a weekend, Azad met his friend Salem after a long time. “I have heard you have quit smoking”, Azad asked Salem. “Yeah”, responded his friend with manifest joy. “I don’t see any fruits on your dining table!” said Azad after scanning his friend’s dining table.

“I keep fruits in fridge” responded Salem readily with smiling face. His reply threw his wife in convulsive laughter. Azad got his friends weakness. He went and opened the fridge door. “We don’t eat fruits. I mean, we seldom eat fruits” Salem itted before his friend. “Why?” asked Azad. “My family likes sweets”, said Salem and brought a box of ‘Dil Pasand’ sweets (a popular brand of sweets sold in his locality), from the fridge. “Don’t you think you all will put weight if you eat sweets daily?” warned Azad. “I won’t because I do a lot of hard work in my shop”, defended Salem. “Look friend, there are natural sweets provided by God to man like mangoes, grapes, melons, dates, figs, raisins. Eat them to satisfy your sweet tooth”, Azad said. “And what if I desire to eat ice-cream?” asked friend to knock out Azad. “That too can be prepared with fresh fruits. Freeze mango cubes and pomegranate seeds in separate containers and eat them frozen. You will have all the benefits of a healthy food without any health hazards of sugar and cream”, explained Azad calmly. “Friend, this is coconut sweets. I am sure you will like it!” said Salem and opened the sweets box for Azad. The box was full of white ‘Chum Chum’ balls coated with crushed coconut. “My dear, stop eating sweets coated with coconut powder. Instead, buy coconuts at half the price of your sweets box. Drink coconut juice and eat coconut pulp”, said Azad putting the lid back on the box. Then he put the date box he had brought with him on the dining table and said, “God made dates and man made Chum Chum. Which one will you choose to eat? Dates definitely! I have brought my farm-fresh dates for your family.” “Thanks God! I needed dates to prepare date-ketchup today”, said Salem’s

wife and took the date box with her in the kitchen. Faces of both the friends wore smiles.

Village friends That day his two friends - date growers indeed - were also with him. Azad reached the venue of the meeting with his village friends and found all of them waiting for him. Without wasting any further time he started in these words: “We should eat what we grow.” Azad scanned his audience. “Our country grows tobacco leaves. Do you suggest that I start chewing tobacco leaves from tomorrow?” taunted Juma. “Our country grows grass in abundance. Does it mean my countrymen should start eating grass?” replied Azad with equal taunt. “Do you want to sell us your dates and get rich?” queried Karim Bux. “It is not dates that I am selling you. I want to sell you the thought that you all avoid junk foods and foods sold in bakeries and restaurants. And increase your daily fruit intake to live a healthy life” said Azad advisingly. “So that you get rich!” said Faiz with a frown. Azad heard loud laughter from his behind. “I am not here to make anybody rich or poor. I just want you all to ponder over your eating habits. Avoid eating too much imported stuff and give more space to local fruits on your dining table” explained Azad. “My family and I - all are madly in love with bakery products. It is irresistible for me to go past a bakery without purchasing biscuits and rusks” said Iqbal. “I seldom buy any fruits because my family does not eat fruits. We like bakery products” said Abdul.

“Do you want me and my two friends to stop growing dates and open three more bakeries in this town?” blurted out Azad. “No! We already have more bakeries in this town than needed. I would be obliged if one of you open a Hair Cut shop in my locality. That clumsy barber in my locality seems tailor-made for sheep shearing job. Look at my hair!” said Gullu and stood up from his seat to show his hair. Loud laughter was heard again. “I suggest one of you open tailoring shop in my locality. That idiot tailor in my locality takes my measurement and sews pajamas exact fit for elephant legs. Look at my pajamas I got yesterday! I need two of me to wear it”, said Juma displaying his large-size pajamas to the gathering. Laughters came from all sides. Azad saw people leaving their seats signaling the end of today’s meeting.

Social media friends Azad had heard that most people nowadays use social media to connect with each other and share their photographs and messages over it. Azad thought of conveying his idea of ‘Eat what you grow’ using the social media where he hoped to find many of his friends and relatives. He went to his friend Salem, a smart phone dealer in Khairpur, who had once suggested him to buy smart phone and people through social media to save phone bills. Azad was now eager to communicate his message over social media to all his cronies. “I want to buy a smart phone and connect with my friends and relatives through social media”, Azad said to his friend Salem. “Also I want to hire your services for three things: 1. You will teach me use of smart phone. 2. You will help me create my social media s on all popular socal media networks. 3. You will teach me to make audio / video calls through my social media s and send text, audio, video and graphic messages to my social

media friends.” “We are friends. No need to pay me anything”, replied Salem. “Use of social media applications is very easy. You will learn everything in just few days.” Salem put before Azad few models of smart phones and said, “These are the popular brands of smart phones. Select the one you like.” Azad selected one with large screen size. His friend Salem inserted battery in it and power charge the phone for some time while both the friends had their cups of tea. Salem then guided his friend the use of phone charger and its data cable, phone buttons, battery charge indicator, camera, how to set date, time, alarm, add s and make/receive calls. Azad took few snaps of himself and made Salem’s phone number entry in phone s. He paid for the phone, also purchased a pair of wireless earphones and screen protector for the phone. Salem pasted protector nicely over the phone screen, packed everything properly in boxes and handed to Azad. Azad thanked Salem and left the shop. Azad then went to his another friend, Iqbal, who worked in cellular phone franchise selling smart phone SIM. Azad gave his details to Iqbal to the SIM in his name, paid SIM charges and gave his phone to Iqbal with request to insert the SIM in the phone. Iqbal inserted the SIM and made necessary edits in phone settings for SIM card and mobile network. He pointed his finger at network signal icon and said, “It is showing zero signal at the moment. Your SIM will get activated in few hours and this icon will display signal strength in vertical bars. I will give you a call in the evening.” and He entered his phone number in phone s and gave the phone back to Azad Azad thanked Iqbal and left his franchise. Azad reached home and showed his new phone to his wife and his nurse daughter. He then attached phone with the charger and switched on to charge phone battery. While Azad was reading manual the phone bell rang. He attended the first call in his new phone. It was from Iqbal to inform Azad of his SIM activation, bonus credit balance and free Internet MBs awarded by his company on new SIM. After dinner, Azad switched on his phone and found its battery icon was showing 100 percent. He called Salem from his phone. Both friends soon

met and Salem guided Azad how to turn on/off mobile Internet. Salem turned it on and Azad saw Internet icon showing data signal strength in vertical bars. Salem then ed and installed three popular social media applications in the phone and created Azad’s s on them with necessary details and a photo.

Chapter Four

MESSAGE

First message Salem taught Azad how to search friends over social media applications and send them friend requests and text messages. Azad searched Salem and sent him friend request and text message. Salem took out his phone from his coat pocket and accepted Azad’s friend request. Azad got notification in his phone announcing Salem accepted his friend request. Salem then sent few messages for Azad’s learning. Azad was happy learning to connect with his friends over social media. Salem created email for Azad and taught him its working knowledge. Azad then searched his twenty more friends, sent them friendship requests and greetings messages. Five of his friends were already online and they accepted his friendship request immediately. Azad also received warm welcome messages from them. With Salem’s help Azad started his first chat with his friend. He wondered how easy it was to convey his message to his friends, relatives and others using social media platforms. Azad felt as if he had entered a new world. Soon he got so busy chatting with his friend that he forgot Salem was waiting to leave. At last, Salem put his hand over the phone screen to get back Azad’s attention and said, “May I leave now?” Azad thanked Salem for his time and effort to introduce him to a new and very powerful world of social media. Both friends shook hands in a happy mood and then Salem left for his home. Next day morning, Azad drafted a brief but impressive message to send to all his social media friends. He switched on his phone, opened the social media application and found his friend Salem online. He typed the message carefully from the first draft and sent it first to Salem to get his .

Azad got Salem’s reply in these words: ‘Very impressive message. Thanks for sharing.’ Then Azad sent the message to all his social media friends who had accepted his friend request and kept a backup copy for future use. He had learned from Salem how to copy, paste and backup his messages and other important files. He noted that none of his social media friends were online at that moment so he closed the application and went to Salem’s shop and purchased a top-up card for his phone. He learned to make credit transfer from the top-up card with Salem’s help. In the evening when Azad switched on the social media application he found many likes and replies in reply to his message. He started reading them sequentially, ‘Good’, ‘Nice’, ‘Great’, ‘Awesome’, ‘Very impressive’, ‘ Azad stopped at one reply - it was interesting. It read: ‘My nephew - you are here also to sell your dates?! And I have heard that you are writing a book to spread your message of Hygienic Foods! Awesome!! Since I have accepted your friend request we are friends now. Send me two boxes of your farm-fresh dates. to give me the offer: BUY ONE - GET ONE FREE because I am your uncle. And send me the book when it is ready. Your uncle Pumblechook’ Azad was glad, his message was working. He replied: ‘Aye aye uncle! Your nephew will be at your doorstep in thirty minutes with three boxes of farmfresh dates carrying a special discount of BUY ONE - GET TWO FREE for my uncle Pumblechook.

First book Six months ed since Azad started using social media platforms to send his Hygienic Foods messages to his social media friends, family and public in general - he used to keep all his posts marked as ‘Public’. It had been his practice daily since few months to select a fruit and write a page or two giving vital information about it. This information included English and local name of the fruit, image of the fruit, its nutritional value, its fruit

gardens located in the country, seasons in which the fruit remains available in the local markets and its exports figures of last year to world countries with export values in dollars. Since a substantial number of Hygienic Food messages had been collected in his phone, Azad planned to compile them into an eBook. He called his friend Faiz, who had rich experience of working online as freelance writer and developer of eBooks in epub and pdf formats. He requested Faiz to spare some time for a business meeting. The meeting got scheduled for next day morning at 10. Azad reached Faiz office next morning for the meeting well in time. He discussed his plan of compiling his Hygienic Foods messages to develop an eBook. He showed messages and images in his phone to Faiz and said, “I have renamed each message as page 1 to 100 to insert in the eBook serially. Similarly, I have renamed images as page number. Insert each image on its proper page at the top center position. Leave two empty lines before the text under the image.” Azad then gave instructions regarding copyright page and author page with author photo for the eBook. Faiz also collected Azad’s idea of book cover for his eBook. On reaching agreement regarding the service charges and other details, Azad handed over his phone to Faiz to copy the folders containing 100 messages renamed as page numbers, images and author photo files for the eBook. Faiz copied all the messages into his computer. Faiz then obtained email address of Azad and agreed to prepare and send first draft of the eBook in pdf format after five working days. Both friends shook hands and departed. Azad received email notification from Faiz on agreed date, opened email and ed the first draft of his eBook in pdf. He found the eBook okay except few minor edits and changes which he conveyed promptly to Faiz. Next day, Azad checked the edits and changes he had requested and found okay. Book cover, book title and author page - all were according to his desire. Azad then forwarded Faiz’s email with attached pdf to his nurse daughter and asked her to and open the pdf in her laptop so that he can proofread the draft copy for any misspellings or punctuation errors. He finally checked placement of images, fonts and look of headings and subheadings, sequence of pages, header and footer texts. Upon satisfaction,

he emailed his okay to Faiz and asked to prepare and send epub format of his eBook. Next day, Faiz emailed pdf and epub formats of the eBook. Azad tried to open epub format in his phone to check it. The phone displayed error message: ‘No application to open this file’. Azad conveyed the error message to Faiz. Faiz said, “Epub format will not open in Android phones. It will open in all Apple devices.” Azad ed his son-in-law had iPhone and he had come for the weekend visit with his family to Azad’s home. Azad promptly forwarded the email containing epub file to his son-in-law and asked him to open the forwarded email and then open epub file in his iPhone. Azad’s son-in-law opened the epub file, looked at the book cover and read its title. When his eyes moved to read its author name he was surprised to find his father-in-law’s name as author of the book. He turned phone screen towards his wife to show her the book cover and said, “Look! Your father has written this book. He is author of the book!” Azad’s married daughter looked at the book cover displayed in phone screen. She too, was surprised when she read her father’s name as author. She took the phone in her hand and went into the kitchen to share this information with her mother. Azad heard his wife’s voice coming from the kitchen, “Azad, whom did you dedicate your book? I am sure it would be none other than me!” Azad opened pdf of his book in his phone, flipped pages swiftly and stopped at Dedication page. He was glad to read it. The book was dedicated to his cute grandson and his loving wife.

*******

Author

Feroz Ali Meghaney was born in 1957 to Gujrati community of Shi’ah Ismaili Aga Khani. His father Abdullah and his elder brother Barkat Ali never followed Ismaili practices of religion. In year 2000, he ed mainstream Sunni Muslim Brotherhood (Ahle Sunnat wal Jam’at) branch of Islam. Soon his children, and later his wife followed him; the family became part of larger Muslim Umm’ah.

After matriculation in 1975 he ed United Bank Limited as Cashier in 1976. He did B.Com. from KU and Banking Diploma from IBP. He served as Instructor/Trainer of Banking Courses at UBL Staff College for seven years (1988-1994). He resigned from UBL in 1994.

He ed PAF-KIET in year 2000. He served as DBA/Manager MIS and developed web-based Student Database System (in Oracle) capable of managing multiple campuses data of students, teachers and staff. He was Campus Director of PAF-KIET North Nazimabad Campus for 2 years (2011-13). He resigned in Sep.2013.

At age 57, he learned Arabic language from free Internet resources to understand Qur’an in Arabic language — the language chosen by Allah for His final message to the mankind through His final messenger Prophet Muhammad (may peace and blessings be upon him).

The Author lives in Karachi, Pakistan with his loving wife Salma. He is father of a son and two daughters, and grandfather of a cute granddaughter Adeen, and a cute grandson Hasnain.

You may author at: Email: [email protected]

Phone/WhatsApp: +92-345-286-3039 Telegram: https://t.me/meghaney