The Eid post

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Eid Mubarak!

Oh…kay… now that Z and Dad have gone out, I guess I can sit down and blog. I came back from Hyderabad the day before yesterday. It was the second day of Eid and it was only so that I can spend atleast the third day with my parents. Alhamdulillah, we celebrated Eid here too.

Yes, Z finally made it and we did spend the eid together! I was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to get away and that I’d have to spend Eid all alone. Last year, this time of the year, we were on our way to Mecca for Hajj. Last year, this time we were racing against time, trying to make it to Jeddah asap so that we could be in Mecca the next day to start our Hajj. Alhamdulillah we made it and Alhamdulillah we performed Hajj last year. Bless Z for his quick thinking. Bless Dad for quickly making arrangements for us and bless the taxi driver who drove non-stop for 12 hours so that we could reach Jeddah on time.

This year, it was much peaceful. This was my first Eid with my in-laws and … I must add that it was ‘different’. It made me realise that I miss my parents and my family a lot and the reason for that is that I have aways spend eid with them and any occasion without them seems so meaningless. My frist Eid (Ramadhan), my mother was with me in Riyadh. The Second Eid was Hajj and my parents performed Hajj that year. The third Eid (Ramadhan again), was in Mecca with Dad and the siblings. This was the first time without them.

Anyway, Eid with Z and his family was really amazing. My SIL and I were the only two ladies in the house and when the meat came in… we didn’t know what to do. AFter changing and putting on our aprons all that we could do was stare! Since we were leaving for my mum’s place the next day we had decided to finish the Qurbani the first day itself. Saying is easy… it is the work that is difficult! We had a ram and a calf done and when the meat came in it was … a lot! There was tub and atleast 4 bags of meat in the kitchen. While the SIL and I stared, Z walked in with his sleeves rolled up and the ends of his pajama folded up to his knees. He sat himself on a chair and started giving off orders. (There was no way we could have done anything on our own! We would have taken three days had it not been for Z!)

SIL was to distribute the mutton and Z would look after the beef. I was asked to get labels and start copying the list on to the labels. *Phew* For those of you who don’t know there is a particular way to distributing the meat. The entire animal is cut up and then one part is kept for the family, one part is distributed among the relatives, neighbours and friends and the remaining one part is distributed among the poor. We didn’t keep any for us because SIL said that what the relatives and friends send in will be more than enough for us. She was right ’cause by 8.30 that evening our freezer was filled up and we didnt know what to do with the remaining! There were alreay three legs of ram! Why do people send in legs??!! yeh kya tareekha hai?!

It was noon when we started and by 3pm everything was cleared and the kitchen cleaned up. We had lunch and then got back into the kitchen a few minutes later. There was the dinner to be prepared, the kebabs to be made, the paye to made ready for breakfast the next day and the preparations to be made for the party the next day. In the middle of all this… Z comes in to say that he wants bheja fry for dinner!!!

I come from a family that hardly eats meat. Chicken is fine but when it comes to mutton and beef we are very very particular as to what we eat and … I married into a strictly non-vegetarian family! This Eid, I learned to differentiate between all the different organs in the animal body! And yes, I learned to make Bheja-fry!!

The second day of Eid, we had nehari for breakfast and Biryani and Peppered Chicken for Lunch followed by Kheer. In the evening, we had Biryani and achar Gosht for dinner at my mum’s place. Undoubtedly, my mother makes the best Biryani!!

Well… as they say… Enjoy your Eid, Eat lot of Meat!!

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