KARACHI: Upon entering the Karachi School of Business and Leadership (KSBL), you were greeted by a couple of volunteers offering the guests black blindfolds. They helped you put on a blindfold and thereon you were groping in the dark. More was yet to come in the form of experiencing ‘Dining in the Dark’ organised by Inclusive Pakistan over the weekend.

Ali Khan Tareen is the president of Inclusive Pakistan. He lost his sight at the age of nine. His sister Fizza Hussain lost her sight when she was slightly older than that. Their friend M.K. Anwar is visually impaired. All three suffer from retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic disorder in which one gradually loses side or peripheral vision until it turns into tunnel vision that gets narrower till the loss of sight due to breakdown and loss of cells in the retina. But that hasn’t stopped them from leading life on their terms and dreaming big dreams.

Dining in the Dark is a common international practice since 1999 where people are served food in complete darkness. It helps them better understand the dark world of the blind. Not just that it also helps them enjoy the food served to them more because with one sense taken away their other senses such as the sense of taste, smell, touch and hearing automatically gets enhanced.

People are served food in complete darkness to help them understand the dark world of the blind

Taha Faisal, who was sitting blindfolded at a table while waiting for his food, said that he was feeling very uneasy. “I want to take off my blindfold when speaking to others at least because I want visual contact,” he said.

Wasiq Sajid said that he was feeling difficulty in breathing with the blindfold. “It is strange because I can breathe from my nose and mouth but still,” he said.

Hamza Fayyaz was worried about how he was going to eat. “What if they serve us curry? I’ll spill it all over myself. What if I get it in my nose instead of my mouth?”

Hassan Dhatti, meanwhile, said that he was up for it as it was a fun exercise besides feeling empathy for the blind.

Rida Ayub, another guest, said that she was thankful to God that this situation was not permanent. “I don’t like being dependent on others. But I am happy that my world will light up again the moment I take off my blindfold. Thank God!” she smiled.

The organisers had the guests sit with other guests whom they didn’t know and they all had questions or they were found airing their concerns instead of easily chatting with each other. One could overhear things such as: ‘Who am I speaking to?’, ‘Is there anyone else on this table?’, ‘Oh God, my phone is ringing. How do I answer it?’, ‘What if they serve us dead lizards or cockroaches!’, etc.

The dinner comprised delicious biryani and gajar kahalwa. Eating in the dark with blindfolds really proved to be a challenge. Sometimes your spoon was just filled with the rice, sometimes just the chicken and sometimes it was just an empty spoon. Many thought that they had finished their meal but their plates were still quite full. But smart ones used their hands to feel the food as they ate, which eventually helped them polish off their plates.

Ali Tareen told Dawn that being sightless for half an hour or one hour was something else and being blind forever was something else. “We have to eat in the dark and we have to do everything else, too, in the dark,” he said. “Today, even the food has been prepared by blind chefs, one of whom happens to be my sister Fizza,” he added.

Fizza said that she loves to cook. “Cooking is my passion. I easily cooked the biryani and gajar kahalwa today for 50 guests,” she said.

Asked if she ever mixed up salt with sugar, she smiled. “Well, no. Because salt and sugar have different textures and the spices, too, have different smells which we can easily make out,” she added.

M.K. Anwar said that for some strange reason people think that the blind can join the teaching profession but he had his own dream of pursuing music.

“I have my own dream of becoming an international star. And why not? Everything starts with a dream. I recently also came up with my own reality show called Star Rappers. And now I’m launching my own album Socially Impaired of which the top song is called ‘Khwab Dekh’ [Do Dream],” he said.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2022