Feeding the poor, one at a time

Qadeemi Mardan Hotel has a legacy of feeding the needy since 1933 

There are a few restaurants in Rawalpindi which feed the poor free of cost three times a day including breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Generally, these places are packed with hungry people who cannot afford the expenses of a meal from their own pockets.

Qadeemi Mardan Hotel is the oldest such place which was established in 1933 at Jamia Masjid Road in Rawalpindi and since then it has been feeding the downtrodden people without demanding any penny from them.

Rahmat Deen, a resident of Rawalpindi since 1933, had set up this eatery and it was known as Langar Khana at that time. Now this place has become synonymous with the name Qadeemi Mardan Hotel. The tradition of Rahmat Deen continues to entertain people with free-of-cost meals and now his fourth generation is in this charity business. The expenses of the restaurant are met through donations by philanthropists who keep visiting the place on a regular basis and generally try to remain unidentified.

Those who come here for food include families also and there are long queues of people at the time of serving of meals in front of the restaurant. The hotel is a small place inside of which only a few chairs and tables can be placed. The people get meals on their turn in the queue and most of them start having their meal alongside the road.

Salman Tahir is the fourth generation of Rahmat Deen and now he is looking after the affairs of the restaurant. He has been in the business for quite some time and knows well to keep it going amid skyrocketing inflation that affects the donors also.

He told this correspondent that the last six months have been very critical for the langar khana as the inflation level has shrunk the size of donations for the restaurant.

“The donations are dwindling badly. Roughly taking a hit by almost 80 per cent compared to the last six months. The businesses of donors have been affected as the US dollar goes up and obviously the high prices of petrol and diesel. How can they (philanthropists) feed the poor if their own business is struggling,” he lamented.

According to Salman, the langar khana was still managing to provide a single meal for Rs50 which are funded by the donors.

According to him, mostly the menu of the hotel contains Qeema aalo, chicken aloo, special kebab, rice, pulses and chicken pulao. He said even during the peak days of pandemic, Mardan Qadeemi Hotel had been providing free-of-cost meals but the virus spread affected the donations.

“A pack of ghee of 14 kilos costing 2,500 rupees six months back is now available for 8,000 rupees. Same is the case with other essential commodities. Despite such developments, we still charge our donors 50 rupees to feed the needy,” he stated.

According to him, 1,500 to 2,000 people visit the restaurant and they are supposed to be fed irrespective of little or no donation.

He told this scribe that before this unprecedented hike in prices of essential commodities, fewer families along with women and children used to visit the restaurant.

“Now things have changed. More families are coming in in search of free food,” he said.

Tahir is of the view that the government should provide financial support to the restaurant so that it could run its affairs smoothly.

“Recently the government has been setting up other langar khanas in the city which are hardly known by poor persons. Instead of opening new langar khanas, the government should provide financial assistance to the established places like ours which are well-known in the city,” he said.

The restaurant also provides meals on mobile vans to different places. All the people need to do is stand in a line to get the free meal.