Our Elderly and their Eid

Come Eid, and I am reminded of my yesteryears when our elderly celebrated the festival of Eid bereft of any ostentation, with great simplicity and fervor. Unlike Eids now, our elders’ Eids were quite lovely-filled with deep gratitude, happiness, mutual respect, community, authentic taste, simplicity and more.

There is a big difference between Eid celebrated nowadays and then. However, digitally, economically or socially sound our life may be, we can never compete with the joy and jubilation of Eids of our elderly who were global citizens in real sense. They lived with simplicity but had high thinking. They practiced what the preached, and never involved themselves in any unnecessary extravagances. Whatever they possessed was their own, not that of taken as a loan from the bank. Taking loan from the bank on interest was not at all a concept in their lives. They spent judiciously what they earned, and saved from what they earned.

If it is not wrong to mention here, our Eids now are more a pomp and show of extravagance, worldly competition and environmental degradation. No doubt, we spend a lot on the Eid celebration in the present times, yet, in true sense that happiness we had in our elders’ time is missing somewhere. We have now become economically sound, digitally forward, and socially upright, but we least care what damage it has done to our society at large.

Have we ever pondered over things like how much of degradation it does to our environment when we bring lots of polythene bags home? Have we ever thought that home cooked food has been replaced by the market food? Or have we ever thought that our unnecessary extravagances spoil the very happiness of our neighbors during the festival of Eid.

Certainly, a big No. We do our will always. We please ourselves and our families, and least bother about what it does to others. And we give it the name as Eid celebration. However, it was not the trend during our elders’ time. They spent Eid with great simplicity by keeping their neighbors, friends and relatives in mind too. They never spent Eids arrogantly and never bought home loads of packed items in polythene bags home. Rather, they had a good habit of carrying with them either an eco-friendly bag or a basket to buy things from the market on Eids. They preferred to cook food at home than relied on insalubrious market food that has now become a craze.

I consider myself fortunate enough to have lived life very close with my elderly. Quite often those days in Dangiwacha, my ancestral home, I was taken along my elderly to purchase Eid stock on the day of Arafah. I recall, those days Dangiwacha used to be a very small market which on Arafah used to witness a huge rush of people from the vicinity. There used to be not an inch of space, such used to be the rush. And our elderly would tightly hold us as kid by the hand so that we do not get lost in the crowd.

As a small boy, I had been to the market with my elderly umpteen times to purchase toys for myself. My father, Lt. G.A. Masoodi who was a Govt. teacher, would often take me along and get my hair cut from the barber’s shop. Those days we had Razaq Naid in Dangiwacha market where one had to wait for hours to get one’s hair cut. There were others shops as well but the market unlike today’s market was quite small.

I vividly remember, those days it was either the butcher’s shop or the baker’s that witnessed a huge rush of customers besides the shops that sold kids’ toys. In our Dangiwacha market Ghulam Rasool from Rawoocha popularly known as Rasul Pujj’s (butcher) shop used to have queues of customers on Arafah waiting for their turn right from the early morning to fetch the meat. Another shop that also witnessed huge rush was a baker’s shop whom every one knew as Gani Kandur whose bread had no parallel in the whole Rafiabad area.

I am proud of the praiseworthy life style of my elderly who never went to the market without a jute bag to purchase essential commodities. The nuisance of polythene bags was accessible those days as well, yet, our elders didn’t bring them home. Instead they preferred to purchase things quite differently.

And on the day of Eid when our elderly would take us along to the Eidgah to offer Eid namaz, they would not let us go anywhere. They would keep close to them so that we do not get lost in crowd. And then after having Eid lunch, they would allow us to play with other kids. I very well remember, we would straight head towards the playground and quickly get ourselves busy in burning the firecrackers. Some of us would walk by foot to Sopore market to watch a movie in Cinema and return home late in the evening.

As I conclude, let us honor the wisdom of our elderly; cherish the time spent with them, and create new memories that will remain with us forever because the life of our elderly was undoubtedly a testament to resilience, perseverance and wisdom. Having navigated life’s challenges with courage and determination, they stand as beacons of hope and inspiration. Their selfless devotion to family and unwavering commitment to values are a shining example to us all.

Dr Rafeeq Masoodi IBS (Rtd) is former Sec. Cultural Academy & ADG, Doordarshan, Srinagar