ADVERTISEMENTThe invitation had promised lunch “sharp 2:00 p.m.” Steaming copper vessels of wazwan sat ready, saffron and mutton filling the room, but five or six guests occupied a hall built for hundreds. Multiply that disparity by the hundreds of guests sitting through it, and you get children turning cranky, elderly relatives worn down by hours in a chair, and working professionals watching their afternoons disappear. Hosts wait for a fuller room, guests wait for the hosts to start, and the two behaviours feed each other until 2 p.m. sharp has lost all working meaning. Well-run functions elsewhere manage this without anyone feeling slighted, and there’s no reason a Kashmiri wedding hall can’t do the same. It needs guests willing to trust that “sharp 2:00” means what it says, so they stop building in a built-in delay of their own.