After month-long penance, Pune celebrates Eid

After a month-long period of pious and physical purification through fasting, Eid-ul-Fitr arrived on Wednesday, bringing with it joy and festivities.

The city wore a festive spirit with Muslim men heading to mosques for the special morning prayers and the ladies cooking up an array of delicacies and sweets at home for guests.

On the day that marked the end of the holy month of Ramzan, businessman Haseeb Faquih’s bungalow was buzzing with relatives, neighbours and friends.

They dropped by to wish the family ‘Eid Mubaarak’ and enjoy the delicious feast prepared by Haseeb’s mother and wife, which included lamb chops, chicken shammi kebabs, sevvaiyan and dahi-vadas.

“Right from my young days, Eid meant a day full of goodies and scrumptious dishes, which I looked forward to after fasting for a month. My mother would start preparing from the day before and on the morning of Eid. My father would wake us up to take us to the Idgah for the Eid namaaz,” said Haseeb, partner of Captions Outdoor Advertising and secretary of Orbis School,  who now takes his children to the mosque for prayers.

What he enjoys the most is the negotiations with his kids about Eidi, a tradition where the elders give the younger ones monetary gifts.

“I tease them by saying I’ll give them Eidi later, but they start demanding it immediately. Upon giving them, they insist it’s less and ask for more. This bargaining is a lot of fun with them,” explained Haseeb, for whom the auspicious occasion is all about family bonding.

At the Nana Peth residence of Abeda Inamdar, vice-president of Maharashtra Cosmopolitan Education Society (MCES), there was a continuous flow of visitors and trays full of dry fruit-filled warm sheerkhurmas kept coming out of the kitchen for the guests.

“My daughter-in-law and I woke up at 3 am to make sheerkhurma from 25 litres of milk. The time in the kitchen spent with her was also a part of the celebrations as we chatted and bonded while cooking all the dishes including chicken, mutton, sevvaiyyan, kebabs and biryani,” said Inamdar.

Ramzan, she said, taught her the importance of self-control and self-restraint. “On this day, we have special prayers, wear new clothes, give Eidi to the young ones and visit our elders’ homes to seek blessings,” she said.

They have more than 100 relatives and meeting everybody on Eid is not possible as they also have to entertain guests, which is why the next day they keep for Eid Milan.

Her husband, PA Inamdar, president of MCES, said technology has changed the way Eid is celebrated. “Outstation well-wishers would first buy greeting cards or write letters and send by post.

Now we get hundreds of SMSes. First, I used to take my children to the mosque; now I take their kids. We also indulge in charity the entire month as we have compulsorily donate 2.5% of our annual savings,” he said.

Inamdar, who sent 200 saris to his village Bijapur as a part of zakat, said charity to mosques, orphanages and madrassas were also made by the family.

Sons Iftekhar Inamdar, partner in Ahura Builders, and Dr Parvez Inamdar, managing director of Inamdar Hospital, along with wife Dr Rukaiya, had all their friends come over for a hearty meal.