First Eid in America

First Eid in America ............ by Muhammad R. Khan
Monday October 23, 2006
Tucson, Arizona

First of all you must be wondering about the change in my name. The reason for this change is that American only have a space of two characters for the middle name in most of the cases. So to avoid confusion I have shortened my name to Muhammad R. Khan.

Eid in Tucson, Arizona was a good one but no where near the eid in pakistan. The eid was to be held at a park called Reid park where 1lmost 1200 muslim men and women offered their prayers. Their was a community lunch from the Islamic Tucson center over there as well. So after the prayer we had some arabic food. It was not bad but I am used to the taste of subcontinent taste so I don't like it much. But the people at Islamic Center Tucson are really good . They had the arrangement for Iftar and Seher in the mosque throughout Ramazan so we "poardesi" were also enjoying the food there.

After the eid prayer, most of my pakistani friends had some classes or quizes so we had to rush back to our rooms. And it was like 1 or 2 pm and we had nothing to do . Can you imagine it in Pakistan? Anyways my fulbrighter friend and me decided to move to the university labs. So we celeberated rest of the Eid at lab.

We had a plan to dine outside at a hilal food restaurtant but we had to complete some assignments for tomorrow as well. So,we got a bit late and when we reached the Sindbad restaurant , it was closing :(

So we went to an indian restaurant, got some "naans" from there and moved back to our rooms and had a dinner with some food from the previous day. At the previous day i.e. last day of Ramzan aftari at the mosque from a pakistani brother and he insisted us to carry some food with us. So we made use of this food on the Eid day.

I am living with a Japanese student (male) but my other friend is sharing his apartment with two chinese and a US couple. So we invited others as well to have a dinner (Chicken Qorma) with us. The Americans and chinese liked the pakistani food very much. After this we served them with a "Halwa" that we got from a muslim store. Again this halwa was way different from the halwas we have in pakistan. Anyways kuch to sahi.

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Another interesting thing about the Eid prayer is that pakistanis get really well prepared for the prayer especially the bachelors. The reason for this is that the many relationships are tied by the "buzargs" at this congregation.

Anyways, i was feeling really depressed on this Eid as there was nothing to do.

Anyways I cannot complain as it is my decision.

So moral of this stroy is

In a foreign country go out for a dinner a little bit early.

You are in a problem if your apartment mate start liking pakistani food.

Pakistanion Eid ki qadar kar lo :P

This is all for now