Eid horrors

Does your Eid revolve around runaway tailors, overbooked salons and embarrassing moments? You're not alone.

Fashion flop

“Last Eid I went all out on the clothes I was going to wear on the occasion. I designed my outfit, spent a week searching for the perfect cloth with matching embellishments and gave it to my tailor two weeks before Eid so that he would have enough time to stitch it. He stitched it in a week but it was completely wrong, I gave it back to him to fix but three days before Eid he shut his shop without returning my clothes. I ended up wearing old clothes on the day.” - Emaan, a college student

All choked up

“I was at my grandparents’ house where my entire family gathers on Eid. I had just taken a bite of cake when my uncle (who is pretty big) came up behind me and whacked me on the back and the bite of cake got lodged in my throat and I began to choke. I started spluttering and trying to cough it up and my uncle realised what was going on. He grabbed me and tried to do the Heimlich manoeuvre which worked and I spat the cake out on the floor. This was then followed by me throwing up everything else I had eaten before as well.” - Asad, a college student

Beauty is pain

“I took an appointment at my regular salon for two days before Eid at 7 pm. I was there till 11 pm because of the crazy rush and throng of women waiting their turn. I still needed to get a manicure and pedicure so took an appointment for the next morning at 11 am and was there till 3 pm. It was absolute madness and made me swear off going to salons so close to Eid.” - Mariam, a school teacher

Feeling hot, hot, hot

“Last year my parents had invited my family over for Eid lunch on the first day of Eid. But the night before, the wiring in my house short circuited and the electric meter caught fire and all the wiring was burnt out. This meant that we had no electricity, none of the appliances were working, the food went bad and it was boiling hot. It was not the best of times and thank God everyone left very quickly.” - Hammad, a businessman

Road rage

“I live in Gulshan-i-Iqbal but the majority of my extended family lives in Defence and Clifton so every Eid my parents and I drive over to visit them. This year we were on our way when one of the tyres got punctured and there was no spare. I knew there was a pump about a kilometre away so I picked up a tyre and began walking towards it. It had rained a bit before and it started again so there were puddles on the road. A jeep drove by and did not slow down and ended up splashing me with dirty water from head to toe. We were pretty far away from home so I went directly to my relatives’ house looking pretty bedraggled and very sad. “ - Saif, a banker

Published in The Express Tribune, September 14^th, 2010.