Money Matters

Eid's almost here. The first few things that come to mind when you hear "choti eid" are: New clothes, Mehndi, Swaiyan and Eidi. Unfortunately, no sawaiyan and mehndi for me this eid, but yayee for new clothes and Eidi!

Eid has changed so much over the past few years. Previously, a whole ten days before Eid, you could feel it coming - the bazaars, the stalls, the shopping. Now, five days before Eid, I saw banners for "Eid mela" and I was thinking, "Already?!"

I remember Papa (Grandfather), sitting on his sofa, with brand new one and two rupee bills in his hand. To me, he always seemed like a big Santa Claus, minus the beard. He'd sit there and one by one, we'd go to him and collect our Eidi. But there was always one part about the whole deal that every kid dreaded - the tickling. He would tickle us a whole lot, give us a kiss and only then would we get our Eidi of two rupees - a brand new purple colored bill. Woot!! Imagine the number of "Bubble Your Name" gums you could buy! And if you were lucky, you'd find one with your name on it and get another one! :D I remember one moment very vividly. [=))] I got "Win 2" on one of the bubble gums and when I received those two, I got "Win 5" on one of them! Best Eid ever! :P

Every Eid, my mamoo gives me Rs.100. Getting Rs. 100 back in the day was like hitting a lottery. I loved getting those, being filled with glee just by holding the bill in my hands. That happiness was short lived, though, because mum would always take them away - not like "Give me the money!" kind of way, but more like, "Beta, paisay gumm ho jain gay. Why don’t you keep them with me?" Big mistake!

I would buy new bangles, although I’d NEVER wear them. I would like getting intricate designs made out in mehndi on my hands. I would like waking up early and dressing up before Papa (dad) came back home from Namaz, so that I could give him a big hug and wish him "Eid Mubarak". Chand raat was an event to look forward to and on that night, shopping was a must! I would meet up with friends and go out, basically, having loads of fun.

Now, however, there is no looking forward to chand raat, no hulla gulla, no bangles, no dressing up early, though I still give papa that early morning hug. My love for mehndi has been reduced to something very, very simple with no designs too congested. This year, I didn’t even put on any mehndi. SO unlike Eid! Something I did do, which was so unlike ME, and is something I have promised myself not to do in a long long time, is spending four hours in beauty parlor! Yuck!

I got extra credit to call all my friends up, but nobody picked up the phone. Nobody. *hurt* But, thank you, B, though I forgot to wish you a happy Eid. It was a fun, fun talk. :D. The reason for it could be that for past 3 years, Eid has been coming during exam season…I don’t know.

Now even Eidi has changed! From two rupees, our worth has increased to twenty-five and from one hundred rupees to five hundred! :P Currently, the five thousand rupee bill is the largest one in Pakistani currency, so the value of the smaller bills is going down (for those eagerly awaiting Eidi anyway).

All this talk of bills reminds me of my first time 'earning' money. Yup, the good old times with the 'tooth fairy'. (Why I call it earning, I’ll explain later.) I knew from day one that there is no such thing as tooth fairy. I knew my dad always came and put Rs. 10 under my pillow. Some of my friends were aghast to hear of such a thing! To ease their young minds, they would say that “everyone has a tooth fairy and Sana has a tooth uncle”. How that made them feel better is beyond me, but hey, I’m not going to complain. Ten rupees! More than enough “Top Pops” in that money to fill my little tummy. Heh, eventually Papa found out that I knew he was my “Tooth uncle”, so he said he wouldn’t give me money any more since he didn’t have to care about "disillusioning" me. :P But since my dad is such a sweet heart, he gave me Rs. 5 instead of 10. Yayee for that too! Two bags of Top Pops! In a way, it was good that he found out that I knew because then I didn’t have to wait until bedtime to get my five rupees. I'd get it before going to school or to the park! :P I’d just go to him, hand in my tooth and say, "Here you go," and he'd take out five rupees!

Now why did I call that 'earning'? Because it wasn’t easy money! It required two syringes of anesthetics and lots of blood per tooth! Yup, all my milk teeth (ok, all minus three) had to be pulled out because they never fell off by themselves and the new ones would start emerging before then! I have had lots of trips to the dentist’s office! (To know where all that got me, read the previous two posts. :P)

So where was I? Yeah, Eid. Eid used to be uber-fun when I was a kid, not just because of all the reasons I mentioned previously, but also because there was a chance that we'd fly to Karachi and meet family. Now, we have a big 'family dinner' every year on Eid, but it’s nowhere near the same. Everyone is so busy nowadays that nobody lives up to the Eid spirit and it’s gone without any long-term effects. Hmm, I remember having a lot to say, but at the moment, it has all left me, so I am going to end it here.

Moral of the story: Things change. Eid’s changed, but one thing that has stayed the same in spite of it all is the sucky Eid transmission on TV. Twenty years and I haven’t seen a single good Eid transmission!