A list of top nine things that make Eid absolutely unforgettable for most of us
You are reading this piece on the sixth day of Eid. Ok, there is no sixth day of Eid. But then there is technically no second or third day for Eidul Fitr either! However, addressing the days following the culmination of Eidul Fitr according to their number corresponding to the number of days since Eid, is one of the traditional things that we are collectively missing on this rather boring Sunday, knowing that we are all just a whisker away from getting back to our even more boring professional lives.
Hence, as one last toast to what was for some of us around 10 days of holidays, we look back at things that make Eid special. It might not be the most conventional list but these are things that we can all relate to. Here are the top nine things that make Eid special:
9. Wasting a lot of money on new clothes
It is one of the grandest Eid traditions to splurge money on new clothes even though we don’t really need them. Peer pressure dictates you wearing something that you just bought a few days ago, even if you already have a list of dresses that you haven’t tried out yet. A lot of our male friends wouldn’t touch their new shalwar kurta for months.
8. Reluctantly waking up early
The Eid ‘holidays’ seem to be a myth when you have to wake up early in the morning virtually every single day, be it Eid prayers or early morning visitors. Also, the pressure to go to the mosque for a wajib salah is a million times more than that of the everyday farz salah.
7. Eating desserts that we don’t really like
Most of us don’t really like kheer, sawaiyyan or most traditional desserts. But they still get cooked in overabundance and in turn wasted in overabundance. Wasting a lot of food is also an Eid tradition for affluent families.
6. Getting less Eidi than we expect
Rs10 were a good enough Eidi a couple of decades ago. I’ve seen kids frown at Rs1000 this year.
5. Listening to your relatives repeat the same jokes
Granted a lot of the Eid rituals are repeated annually, but some of our mamus and chachas take it a step too far. You hear the same jokes you get to hear twice a year every year.
4. Enjoying the luxury of 24-hour CNG when we won’t be travelling much
The government is kind enough to allow access to CNG for 24 hours a day, for a whopping five days. It’s a pity that most of us don’t travel much on Eid. I need someone to tell me a way to store CNG before the next Eid brings another 5-day CNG fest.
3. No load shedding means much needed rest for the UPS
The happiest person on Eid is arguably the UPS, or the generator, that gets some well deserved rest. However, after that luxury period is over, it’s back to the same old dreaded routine for the UPS. In a way a UPS mirrors our sad lives.
2. Not having to read newspapers for two days
I really don’t know how these newspaper publications manage to squeeze in an edition on Eid day. Don’t they give their employees a breather on chand raat? In any case the Eid day edition is a harmless one, with most of it filled with lifted news from all over the world. Thankfully one doesn’t get to read that wretched thing over the next couple of days.
1. Celebrating Eid on different days
Saudi Arabia has a different one, Peshawar has a different one, the rest of Pakistan has another one… And then we all discuss the unity of Muslim Ummah over kheer and sawaiyyan.
The writer’s extended family thinks he is a sadist. He normally spends Eid sleeping all day. All side-effects of reading The Horizontal Column are the readers’ headache.