Hari Raya -Eid

Eid is a very special celebration. Literally, it marks the end of Ramadhan (the fasting moth). And the celebration is vast –at least to my family. But this year, is a rather sad Eid to the entire family as my cousin passed away 3 months ago, and a month later, my uncle (dad’s youngest brother) passed away.

2 days ago, my other uncle, who is in Leicester has been admitted to ICU due to multiple stroke. He is in coma. My dad is pretty much depressed. He literally raise my late cousin and uncle. And now his elder brother is in bad condition.

Ok, lets go back to Eid. I see the celebration in my family as a fusion of Pakistani and Malay tradition. My grandparents were originally from Pakistan, and the culture runs strong in our blood. But we have also incorporated the Malay tradition into this joyous occasion.

There were Tandoori, Biryani Rice and there were also Ketupat and Rendang.

The house was well decorated. My mum has this thing about every single corner of the house must be cleaned. (She even warn me to clean up my house in KL before I go back!). On the other hand, my sisters were on their quest in making the house look like a garden. (they are crazy with flowers!). Here are some of the beautiful ones.

Everything was ready by 6.00pm on the eve. This year, I am in-charged on the barbeque. For the record, I did it quite well!. We all had our break fasting together. It was my first (and only) break fast with the entire family this year.

Later on, we head up to the compound area. My elder brother bought sufficient amount of fireworks to keep all of us entertained for an hour. It was fun asusual. But this year, it was even better, because Zulaikha (My little niece) is with us. She she was extremely excited, and funny. At times, she got scared and run to us. But after 10 seconds, she'd say "Some more!"

My brother with Zulaikha

She was aiming for the big ones!

Eid Day

I woke up approx 7.00am and got ready to go to the graveyard. I was touched to look at my cousin, performing his prayers at his dad’s grave. Every single year, my late uncle would be the first person to be there. And this year, he is there. My dad broke into tears for a sec.

We got home at approx 8.15am. Had our breakfast and got ready to go to the mosque. I was still in the shower when my sister scream “You’re late as usual!”

After the prayers, we got prepared for visitors. My dad comes from a big family and I have too many cousins. One by one drop by our house and it was a non-stop kitchen service. I enjoyed it as this is the only time for us to catch-up.

Having said that, i got to thinking about how many times in a year we do that? Answer: Less than 3.

We didn’t go out (We couldn’t!) until late evening. Went to my aunt’s place (X3). This is pretty much what I will be doing for the next 3 days. Entertain guests at the house and visiting.

It would be too cliché for me to put up pics of the food. I noticed something far more interesting to be featured here. So, let's see the newborns in the family:

Now let's look at the bigger ones.

If it was a competition, i must say that the cutest baby is this one:

I forgot his name... lol!

By the way, the guy & girl holding the babies are my brother, Azmir and my sister Azeema. And this is my youngest sister, Mira:

p/s: She saw me working on this post and screamed why her pic was not included!

Well, as i said earlier, the routine was food, people, people, and more people... and then food again..... and of course, there was money (Duit Raya). Hey, i'm not that old!

Later that evening, my cousin, Firdaus (The one getting married) came. He's a great guy and my family just love him. He is spending the night with us. We had so many interesting conversations. This dude and my elder brother are jokers.

This is Firdaus.

Later that night, approx 8-ish, the electricity just went off. It was totally weird because the entire neighbourhood could enjoy the movies aired on TV, or wacth the continuous update on our astronaut and we were in the dark.

Thanks to Tenaga Nasional (TNB), we regain electricity within 30mins..

I thought it would take them forever to come fox the problem, especially on Hari Raya. I was wrong! Kudos to TNB!!!

Yeay!

We invited them to come in and have some Ketupat, rendang and cookies. My dad is really good with his PR (Hurrmm.... it runs in the blood?)

I was introduced to the TNB dudes, and:

My dad : Ni anak ke-2 saya. Dia kerja kat KL (This is my son. He work in KL)

TNB Guy: Wah, cantik rambut. Terpacak semua, dah macam kena letrik (Wah, nice hair. Al spiked up, like you've had electric shock)

Everyone laugh. Excuse me?

Have a great Eid!

Cheers!