eid mubarrak

the biggest holiday in most part of malaysia. also the biggest holiday for me.

the essence of typical eid celebration for me can be summarized to 3f; family, friend and food.

food

after 1 month of fasting, its time for feasting. eid is conveniently also called 'hari lebaran' for on dat day people 'melebar'. (hari lebaran=widening day, melebar=widens). the feast starts from the eve n last until the 2nd or the 3rd day at my house(depends on the energy of the top chef/my mom and/or the presence and the amount of sponsorship).

for the muslim, ramazan is all about moderation. in eating n everything else. in our malay culture(or maybe just in my family culture) we celebrate eid with excess. especially in food. my mom have an uncanny ability to cook a gigantic portion of delicious food for 20++ plus-size people which would last from the morning until dinner. and trust me, we dont eat on the classic 3 meal per day basis on this day, we will eat breakfast, brunch, lunch, linner(mentong) and dinner. no exaggeration here. understatement perhaps cause i dont mention how many servings each took for each meal and i excluded the eid cookies, snacks and chips that always present around the house. n dats the average minimum cause each is to their own. if i take my bro for an example, i have to add pre breakfast, post lunch, pre dinner etc. we cant help the extra servings and meal cause the food are too delicious n inviting.

the menu is ketupat, rendang daging, kari ayam, kuah lodeh and kuah kacang. the next day, my aunt usually sponsors some food from outside caterer, either beriani or kfc also usually in gargantuan proportions and accompanied by a mix of ice cream or other desserts which is subject to the creativity of my brother who r usually sent for the shopping mission(with me as the get-away car driver; which makes me the transporter?). soft drinks are always present in these 2 days courtesy of my aunt.

after 2 days, the house will be quite and the big serving plates went to rest as my relatives would already left. but my gastrointestinal tract are not allowed to do so for another 2-3 days(subject to the duration of my friends holiday n the competence of the planner; which is really competent except this year. yeah, i was the planner until last year). we went to each other houses; gathers at 1 house initially, eats the foods n cookies there while chatting n gossiping n talking nonsense, always late at leaving the current house as we're bad with goodbyes/lazy bums with hard to move big heavy @$$.

clearly food is a big part of my eid agenda. it must be evident for my kttians friends as they went through 2 eids with me at my liquid phase. before the 1/2weeks holidays and after, significant difference are apparent. in india i compensate by eating at the restaurants for every single meal for the 2 days. the eve dinner at gajalee, breakfast 1st day; nasi lemak senior mahfidz cooked for us(really delicious. but still my mum's better :)), lunch; nasi himpit, kuah kachang, rendang lembu, nasi myk, ayam masak lemak, roti jala n kari ayam(sadly no lodeh n the rendg taste a lil bit bitter. somethg burnt?). linner at ice&spice, dinner at sizzler's ranch. the next day, bfast at mess, lunch at pizza hut, linner; movie popcorn, dinner at amazon. the 3rd day we went picnicking n eat cookies n chips; my idea to compensate on the eid convoy.

family and friends

as our house is built on the heritage land from my maternal grandparent, we become the host for the eid celebration(other unofficial reason is my mum's awesome cooking). most of all 9 of my mother's siblings n(if present) their spouse/s, son/s and daughter/s will arrive the day before eid n help with the preparations.

in the morning we will be filling up the ketupat casing (which most of it made by me). the golden rule of filling up a ketupat casing is LESS than half. the other important rule is; if the ketupat turn out too hard or too soft, that particular ketupat is filled by my bro. by afternoon, they would already start cooking n would be completely done in the night. at night we usually do preparation of material for the next day food. peeling potatoes n cutting vegetables for the lodeh etc. all the while gossiping, singing, chatting nonsense etc.

i heard some people say that people from muar are weird, they havent met my family. if they did, the notion would be reinforced. my aunts n uncles are sporting n fun while at the same time wise n being their offspring, my cousins are awesome too. when we gathered at the table, there is never a silent moment. bursts of laughter are abundant around the kitchen table where we usually hangs out.

the prude n faint hearted would n should stay away from the table coz the topics of conversations/discussions/debates are controversial. these arent typical conversation u can hear from a intergeneration n inter-gender group sitting around a table. its rare to find aunts telling their nephews n nieces about the correlation between the size of a guy's nose and the size of the guys.... errr... look it up urself. thats an assignment. but somehow the discussions will always have some education element in it however lewd or nonsense they are. that's how awesome my aunt n uncles are.

my friends from muar, we knew each other for almost 16years already. n most of them lives nearby n we went to the same school which let them know the unspoken history of mine. they know my situation without me telling them, accepts me for who i am, acknowledge what made me myself but never judge me based on it. in a way that makes me closer n comfortable around them in a way that would never occur to my college friends as they wont possibly know what my friends from muar knew. this is worth repeating, people from muar are weird and i can say that it applies to my friends. being a person who appreciates aesthetics, they never bore me.

they say that 'we cant choose our family'. n the way we are sent here to mangalore, unable to choose our unimates, seniors n fellow mangaloreans, makes us 1 big family. i am grateful to be fortunate enough to get such awesome seniors who by the way they treat us, makes it feels like home. they invited us to stay at their house for the eve of eid. we did the preparations together while chatting until late. next morning to get ready, we queue up for the bathroom, have breakfast together and solat raya together. totally feels like raya at home (minus the duit raya giving n camwhoring)

during the holidays, i also got the chance to hangout n reconnect with old friends and met some new ones. from acquaintances to friends. from friends to family. all the meals and the picnic are great medium for us to chat n connects with each other.

i can add 2 more f's. 1 of them is fashion, where we wear our new baju melayu complete with samping then take pics togenther. i completely loves my baju melayu this year, despite the facts that the pant split in the crotch area. i manage to hide it under the samping by always standing or sitting in a very polite manner.

the other 1 is forgiveness where we ask for forgiveness from each other and shake each others hand n hug

overall, eid in india is awesome. incomparable to eid in malaysia cause it is different. but both are awesome. thanks to seniors n frens who make the good time possible. the seniors makes me think about not going back next year to celebrate it here n do something special for our will be juniors as what they did so that they feel at home n will not be sad on their first eid away.