fourteen: back to reality

so eid this year lasted for three days . it started on friday and pretty much didn't end until sundy night. i sleepwalked my way to uni this morning feeling extremely disgruntled and depressed - monday, and it's back to the reality of deadlines and 9am starts...

as such i've posted some colourful photos of eid with my family and friends, in an attempt to make myself feel better about the cold reality of urban life.

the first photo is of my little cousin shegufta, who as you can see is a bit of a loser. evidence of her loser-ness (as posted on aniqa's blog):

"parent: where are you?
shegufta: in aniqa's bathroom (lie no.1)
parent: where's brishti apu (me)?
shegufta: here with me drinking tea (clearly she's forgotten lie no. 1)"

the second is a photo of one of my bestest and oldest friends ritee (i think my absolute oldest friend is aniqa since i was there when she was born, but i didn't take any pictures with her).

this last image is a photo of ritee's hand, the henna on which was applied my your's truly. when sadia and i went to the mela earlier this year, we were charged FIVE DOLLARS for a tiny henna design which was not even half as pretty as my one (can you tell that my parents raised me as a stereotypical only child?). i could so earn a fortune if i set up a stall there next year...

in other news, i recently attended karishma's 23rd birthday party, a gathering i almost set fire to. observe how this happened:

we were at thairiffic newtown, an establishment which seems to be under the flawed assumption that it is possible to eat pad thai in almost complete darkness. to remedy this situation i gathered the candles of all the kind people in my vicinity and used them to light up my plate, as shown in the picture afi so kindly took.

a few minutes later i noticed a bright light to my right. i turned and observed that the candle lights were getting brighter. pleased by the extra light, i absent-mindedly returned to my food. about a minute later the lights seemed rather TOO bright... so a turned again and realised that my napkin had caught fire! i then started screaming and blowing on the napkin to extinguish the flames, but this only made the fire bigger. my companions merely pointed and laughed at my sad predicament, while my screaming attracted the attention of more and more customers.

finally, my dear friend sabrina had the good sense to grab a full jug of water and pour it over the napkin. this made a right mess of the table, but at least she saved the restaurant from burning to the ground :)

thirteen

i spent the entire month of ramadan incessantly complaining about how hungry i was, how sick i was of waking up to eat and pray at 4am and how it wasn't even worth it because i'd gained two kilos rather than shed them.

however, now that the moon is out and it's all over for another year, i feel... like something wonderful has slipped from my grasp. as i sat there sipping my lemonade and staring out at the indigo post-twilight sky during the last iftar of the year, i had a moment of sadness. ramadan is the muslim's version of christmas. a time for food, family and general happiness.

after this eid weekend, we will all return to our monotonous lives of urban drudgery. there will be no sehri and iftar to paint our days with an element of meaning and purpose, no sense of achievement and sacrifice from fasting for twelve hours straight despite having been at uni from 9am to 7pm.

ah well, enough mourning. it's eid! which makes it impossible to remain down-cast about anything for more than two minutes.