“I am not going to eat the curry you made last night. Either buy me a pizza, or I will not have anything for lunch today,” snapped Sara as she smashed the door into her mother’s face and stormed inside her room.

Refusing to eat home-cooked meals while being cheeky and ungrateful has been Sara’s everyday norm now. Lost in her thoughts, Mrs Ahmed, Sara’s mum, was trying to figure out a way to convince her nine-year-old defiant daughter to have lunch. Just as she was about to make her move towards Sara’s room, her eyes fell onto the morning’s newspaper left abandoned on the table. The front page carried a picture of a scrawny baby who was suffering from malnutrition.

Clutching the paper in her hand, Mrs Ahmed sailed into Sara’s room. She placed the paper on Sara’s lap, who in protest had dropped herself on the bed and was unwilling to even look up at her. Sara reluctantly took the newspaper in her hand and glanced at it. As she started to read it, tears welled up in her eyes and she felt sorry for her behaviour.

Under the caption in bold were some astonishingly gloomy statistics: “828 million people were affected by hunger in 2021and it was predicted that around 670m people (that makes around 8% of the world’s population) will still be facing hunger in 2030. Furthermore, it also revealed that 149m children, with age less than five years,, suffered from stunted growth due to lack of essential nutrients in their diets.”

Sara had realised her mistake, her mother embraced her gently while she repented and pledged not to be demanding from that day onwards. Dear friends this was Sara’s story, but what about the rest of us?

Can you all relate to this? Returning home from school, as hungry as a wolf when you can gobble up all that is brought for you to savour, don’t you frown and make a face when you see food on your table that is not according to your taste buds? Don’t you complain and be all demanding?

Instead of being thankful to Allah that He has laden your dining table with food of all kinds and has given you the privilege to satisfy your hunger, you groan and whine and refuse to eat. You nag your parents to provide you with food items that you crave for, instead of appreciating what you already have. For a second, just think how blessed you are to have access to meals thrice a day. Yes, it might be possible that you might not like a particular dish that is made using a vegetable which you are not fond of, but remember it is a blessing of Allah. Eat it without grumbling since you are among those lucky individuals who have been bestowed with it.

Look around and see for yourself how difficult it is for people nowadays amidst surging inflation and uncertain economic situation, to make both ends meet. So many people today are barely surviving and are not only hunger stricken, but are either a victim of unemployment or are left penurious. Besides, don’t overlook the amount of hard work your parents do in earning a living in order to make sure that you and your siblings live a comfortable life. The struggles and the efforts they make in ensuring that you have access to all the provisions in your life is undeniable. So put yourself in their shoes and decide how bad they feel when you hurt them with your rude and disrespectful behaviour.

Moreover, even if you do not like the taste of certain meals, devour them looking at their nutritional value. Now you all need a balanced diet, so the intake of certain vegetables and fruits become vital for your health. Instead of shoving them away, try to eat a little bit of them, you never know you might like their taste and then you grow fond of eating them.

So dear readers, the next time you see a meal in front of you that you don’t like, instead of sulking, feel blessed and be grateful. As Sterling K Brown has rightly said, ‘Always have an attitude of gratitude.’

Published in Dawn, Young World, September 2nd, 2023