Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Eid Mubarak!


An excerpt from a letter I wrote to my mother a year ago in an attempt make her see my point of view regarding a situation.

"Religion, in the strict sense of God, Priests, Rituals, Chanting etc doesn’t figure anywhere in my philosophy. But religion in the cultural context is something which I appreciate and enjoy. The beauties of the Moslem culture like the language Urdu, Shaayari, Clothes, Biryani, Qawwalis, Architecture etc are the aspects which appeal to me. They make me feel proud about belonging to such a rich culture. In fact, I think that you have a good role to play in this. I can trace back my love and understanding of Urdu Shaayari to you. Your love for masters like Faiz, Iqbal, Ghalib and Mehendi Hasan etc has seeped into my system too."

This excerpt has certain relevance today as we are celebrating Eid in the true cultural style of Moslems. Pooja is attempting Biryani for the first time in her cooking career. My contributions so far has been buying Kohinoor Basmati Rice, Chopping Onions, Crushing pepper, playing the right kind of music and moral support.

Interestingly, and to my best knowledge, none of the major Urdu poets with the exception of Josh Malihabadi, came up with a good Sher for Eid. There are many anonymous ones though. The one which has been highly abused, especially by Hindi movies is this. Its quiet easy to understand so I don’t need to translate it.

'Eid' kaa din hai gale aaj to lag jaa zaalim

Rasm-e-duniyaa bhii hai mauqaa bhii hai dastuur bhii hai

To find what Josh has to say on the subject, you can go here.

ps
: will let you know how the Biryani turned out to be. the picture shows its beginnings.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Eid-Mubarak.. Lovely the preparation looks.. :) Hope it turned out nice.. And dont miss the 'riata'..

Sorry for being so elusive dude.. A little caught up in webs.. But coming out slowly.. Setting the perspective right..

samshri said...

hope pooja made some yum food...

Roshan said...

Eid Mubarak Meraj and Pooja. I am sure the biryani will be great!! Wish we were there to have some.

Anonymous said...

Eid Mubarak to you both. And keep us posted on the biryani :)

Chinchu said...

Eid mubarak Meraj and Pooja. Post pictures of the finished product, I am so craving home made biryani right now.

meraj said...

ok...so the biryani turned out to be pretty good and we enjoyed it with Glenlivet, Bordeaux and conversation.

alien said...

EID MUBARAK

Brown Weed said...

very nice -
mauqaa bhi hai, dastoor bhi hai!
have a happy eid! keep celebrating!

Anonymous said...

Eid Mubarak , guys ... ! - Bhaskar (too lazy to sign in now ;-) )

Atanu Dey said...

Eid mubarak. Hugs to both of you.

ghaza said...

abe chamaad kya hua? will call you ......... I have to call lots of people: meraj, bongi, pramit and you, sabke saath awkward timing chal raha hai

P.S.: eid-mubarak ........... one day late :( was too sleepy yesterday !!!!!

meraj said...

thank you all!

alien said...

Baba please do a post on MICA its a humble request.
cheers!!!!

Smiling Dolphin said...

there has to be a significance and meaning to eid, beyond mere biryani, whether you believe in god or not...i hope someday you both will see that, maybe when the kids come along. belated wishes anyway, but to be honest i am sincerely disappointed with this post.

Pooja Nair said...

"mere biryani"??? do you know the effort it takes to make some good biryani? :)

I thnk the biggest meaning behind any festival is to be happy and spread good cheer and wish each other and watch each other smile...

meraj and I enjoyed onam and eid and look forward to the rest of the festivals that are cming up... :)

cheers!

thecorporatehippy said...

Waah!
Riwazon se door bhi na gaye
Rahe khudi ke qareeb
Eid is baar kuch aisi beeti...

Belated wishes! Congratulations Pooja

meraj said...

shukriya, miyan...aur gypsy se hippy kab ho gaye?

Namas said...

I am glad that pooja made biryani on eid...congrats poo!!U r doing gr8!