Chilli or No Chilli

Those familiar with it will know that when you’re at any Hungry Lion counter, you’ll be asked one iconic question. Chilli or no chilli? While this is simply a choice as to the flavour of your meal, it is a daily decision for men.

And it’s instructive about who you are as a man and the choices you’ll have to make – sometimes in an instant or over your life time. 

Do you pick the fun, exciting option or the sensible one that will ultimately protect your mental, financial or emotional well-being? 

So, you’re stuck in traffic and a vendor walks up to your window and offers you one of those funny homemade energy ginger and orange drinks. No idea where they’re made or what goes into them or the hygiene in which they’re made. Chilli or no chilli? 

You’re catching up with the guys over a few drinks. The energy is right, you’re hearing hot gossip about people’s finances, marriages, loans, deals, the drinks are flowing and it’s too soon to leave. You have K650 in your pocket. Groceries at home are running low. No chilli. 

Are you picking chilli or no chilli when you’re driving back from a business trip or family visit but have to catch a football game at the bar? You’ve already taken two calls about how the bar is buzzing. Overtake the truck ahead of you because you want to be in time for kick-off or take it easy, it’s only a football match? 

You see, chilli or no chilli is what determines that you pick up a sexually transmitted disease, gambling habit, get arrested for fraud or enjoy seeing your children or business grow.

It’s the one thing that separates us from one another as men. To spark your life with excitement or take the steady, assured route? 

No chilli is when you choose to earn your money the honest and at times boring way. To keep driving the car you can afford because the alternative will plumb the depth of your pockets. 

Because chilli is the fast deal – a quick buck that goes as fast as it comes. It’s the girls with glowing skin and worldly ways. The exciting choice of a new girl over the one that’s been with you since the Rupiah Banda administration. 

Chilli or no chilli tests our resolve as fathers, husbands, partners in business and in love, community members or as colleagues in the workplace. So what are we picking the next time we have to choose? Is it the consistency of our character or the excitement of the moment?

We have to pick the boring, assured choices or the exciting, unknown option. Salary or fraud? One more drink or go home? School fees for the children or new iPhone 16 for a hot sidepiece? Chilli or no chilli, we must bite, chew and swallow whole whatever decision we make as men.