The write-up has been submitted by Iqbal Latif
I have lived on both sides of the spectrum. I have worked closely with billionaires in boardrooms and sat beside the poorest in forgotten alleys. And I’ve always felt equally at ease in both spaces.
A line from Rudyard Kipling has stayed with me since childhood—etched into my sensibility:
“If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch…”
That line is more than poetry to me—it is a code.
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When I walk with kings, I carry my dignity.
When I meet the poor, I grant them theirs.
That, to me, is the real test of character: not what you own, but how you see others. Not your stature, but the dignity you confer on those society has overlooked.
And that is precisely what I see in Lahore.
The Hidden Generosity Behind Lahore’s Walls
In recent days, while exploring the outlying quarters of Lahore’s historic Walled City, I have been searching—not just for architecture or ambiance—but for what Javed Akhtar once insinuated: the hidden walls behind which Pakistan’s poverty allegedly festers in shame.
I expected to find silent suffering. What I found instead was quiet dignity. Quiet generosity.
Behind the chaotic beauty of its bazaars and the ancient walls of its inner city, I discovered not poverty alone, but a nobility that never asks for recognition. Acts of silent charity that never make headlines. Meals paid in advance for strangers. Food served without judgment. Tickets left behind by anonymous hands for those who have nothing.
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In multiple restaurants scattered across narrow alleys and bustling chowks, I noticed small lines forming—two or three people at a time. Their clothes and manner revealed hardship, yet there was no begging, no humiliation. Just waiting.
I asked them gently why they were there.
“We come here to eat. Someone already paid.”
I spoke to the owners. And what they described was something rarely documented in newsrooms or romanticized documentaries.
Every day, customers—ordinary Lahoris—pay in advance for meals.
Some buy one extra plate.
Some buy ten.
Others walk in and leave 10,000 or 20,000 rupees without a name, without a word.
The restaurant keeps track using tickets. I saw it firsthand:
One place had 4 tickets left for meals costing 800 rupees each.
Another had 11, and it was past 11 PM.
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One owner told me a man had just left 22,000 rupees to cover meals for the week.
This is not institutional charity. This is street philanthropy.
It’s the quiet, everyday sadaqah and khidmat culture that the elite intelligentsia rarely see—and never mention.
Like the Italian practice of “caffè sospeso” (suspended coffee)—where customers pay in advance for someone less fortunate—Lahore’s old city has its own version:
Niharis on trust. Paye on compassion. Bread on faith.
And during Eid, it flourishes even more.
Lines grow longer. And so do the anonymous contributions.
There’s no performance. No press. No ego.
Just the unspoken ethics of a community that looks after its own.
What Javed Akhtar calls “walls of shame,” I now call walls of grace.
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These aren’t places where the poor are hidden.
These are places where dignity is protected.
This, to me, is real civilization.
In the lanes of Lahore, the soul of the East is still intact—not in marble, but in mercy.
Not in declarations, but in daily, silent kindness.
And in that quiet dignity, I found the true soul of Lahore.
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The write-up has been submitted by Iqbal Latif
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