Day 0
Let’s begin with day 0 to be honest. It is not day 1 because being a computer engineer, I start my indexing from zero, not one. Day One would be tomorrow .
Today is just the beginning of the Eid break.
And it went like this.
The Madness
This day was a madness. On Tuesday, I had a demo with teh Cary team and I got some feedback. On Wednesday, we had another short technical meeting which meant more work in the APIs that were already planned and implemented.
So, I worked till 8 o’clock on the feedback and the new changes, hoping every hour of the day that I’d be able to finish my work then, and would be able to logout earlier than usual (10-11 PM). Nobody would believe it, but I was working on at least five different stories at once, but I wanted to finish them before I started my break, otherwise half of my brain would have been occupied occupied with the office work.
Around 8 o’clock. I logged out officially announcing my Eid break to my team members. After that I got busy with Isha prayers and taraweeh. Since I have knee problem. It took me at least an hour and a half because I took several small breaks in between. By the time I finally joined my family for dinner. I was already irritated for no reason at all.
Let’s Step Back
You see, I am not very happy with my current team members and the dynamics we share. I am not informed of any decision they make. I think it is the perils of working remotely. So, this time, I also did not want to inform them of the current development that I was doing, but I was forced to hear a lecture. If I ever miss a meeting, my manager asks me to listen to the recording, summarise the meeting and list the action items. This Wednesday meeting that I’m talking about? Nobody attended it. Nobody even informed that they are not going to attend. Today, my manager told me to summarise the meeting.
Okay, so let me get this straight.
- If I miss the meeting. I am the one to summarise and list action items.
- If I attend the meeting. I am the one to summarise.
What is she doing in all of this ? If anybody wants to learn how to deligate, you should meet my manager.
The Dinner
Anyways, back to the story, when I joined my family for dinner, I was already annoyed and I was on edge, even the slightest difference from how I like things, was upsetting me. There were dirty plates and glasses on Dastar Khan. My brother just would not pass me the qorma. And later, he kept insisting that we are to get ready quickly because he wants us to take us for a shopping spree or just to enjoy the raunaq on the Eid bazaar.
I realised that I was being better to my family for no reason at all. Now, I have seen the Eid bazaar raunak a few times in the past and I have not liked it. Still, I was ready to go. I just wanted to stop thinking about work and start living like life for a change.
My niece and my sister-in-law were already in their bazaar outfit: hijaab for my 2.5-year-old-niece and abaya for my sister-in-law. They had been ready for the past 15-20 minutes. It took me five minutes to get ready, put some cash in the purse, a bottle of water, lip balm and my phone .My abaya, hijab and veil were already on the stand. Two vehicles and six people, our little caravan.
Within ten minutes, we arrived at my sisters place to park the vehicle and begin the fun of Eid break.
Stopover @My Sister’s Place
My nephew was awake almost about to go to sleep and he made a face when he saw me. He was not happy about the disturbance in his schedule. To be honest, he’s six months old so I can’t really argue with him. Alright, let’s go. I led the way to the churi bazaar. We stopped at one shop that my sister in law recommended. We must have spend half an hour there, and we shopped for 650 rupees. Bangles for everyone except me. I didn’t buy it because I have plans to wear gold bangles this Eid. Ordered them a day before Ramzan and got them a few days later.
Excited!
The Shopping
The next stop was a street shop for hair catchers. The ones I have are either broken or two big for my thinking hair. The woman had a nice stock especially in Matt colors. I got 5, then my brother suggested more colours. So we got 8 and then 5 more from another shop. Sometimes it’s not about how much do we need but how much we like. We are a big family, so I can always gift them to my sisters and cousins. So that’s not a problem. Then, we enjoyed a few plates of pain puri . My brother went to buy some stuff for sihoor from bakery and we the women made way to the second lane of bazaar. My niece wanted a purse, one from my brothers daughter and one for my sister’s daughter.
The next ten fifteen minutes were just window shopping, and me wanting to sit down badly. This stroll had taken a toll my diabetic feet.
I bought a pair of shoes, a few hair catchers and three abayas. I bought only three because the shopkeeper was not ready to bring the price down; I liked at least six. We took a stop over at my uncles shop. I liked nothing else. I would have bought some fabric from his shop. Then we made our way back to my sister’s place.
Showing Off
Showing the shopping to my mum, and my older sister took about an hour and a half . My mother approved of most of the shopping, which was assigned Office successful shopping spree .
When we finally got to bed. It was almost 2 AM. The source, the usual social media growing scrolling took another hour and a half and before I knew it, it was time for tahajjud prayers. And then it was time for Suhoor, then time for Fajr and then time to go to bed. It’s almost 7 o’clock as I type this I still can’t sleep.
And, this is just the beginning of Eid break.
Regards,
Shabana