Eid Galore!

  Eid is in the air and as the Ramadan days come to a close, the rush in markets are already increasing. One can easily take a walk in a corridor of any school and university and see girls comparing notes on what to wear, which fashion desginer is selling the hottest new Eid fashions and whining about the housework and cleaning their mothers have already started to do in preparation for the big day. Atleast, this is see-able in THIS part of the world.
  Where the other, greater half of the world is drowning in flood, getting displaced from their own homes or dying out of hunger and disease, we're pretty thick to close our eyes to the world beyond our safe, air conditioned homes and "celebrate" Eid (like we would every year ofcourse, we're not dying out of plague and huger, right?). Afterall, our part of the world remains pretty much undisturbed, then why should we not celebrate as lavishly as we always do? Amir Adnan has just intrduced his new line of clothes for this season after all, why hold back? The "gaon walas" are already cluttering our cities, bringing about more disease and increasing the number of annoying street beggars who do nothing but ruin the "image" of the place where we live in as is. What difference does it make if we bring happiness in our own lives to those unnecessary others?
  The difference, sadly, is ironically great. It's sad to see how so many of us remain so ignorant towards everything that is going on around our country. Just because we have donated a few bucks, we feel that there is nothing more we can do to help those aroud us who have nowhere else to go. In the recent article in the Images section of the Sunday Dawn, I came across many aricles talking about the latest fashions for Eid, about the "cheap" (only between Rs.3000-Rs.25000) clothes available at the different boutiques and all the new things one can do to lavishly decorate out houses for this Eid. How can people remain so ignorant, completely forgetting the fact that a peice of "cheap" clothing of even Rs.3000 for one day can give a month of supplies to the people of the world we so succesfully ignore? Forgive me for being so very critical, but I fail to understand how we can talk about what we're going to be wearing for Eid when there are so many people around us who have been wearing the same clothes for two months?
  I do not mean to suggest that we should go under severe depression, ignore the gift of Eid that Allah has given us and lie around in the sadness on our beds on Eid day. But perhaps, specially THIS Eid, when our country and so many of it's people are facing so much cruelty and turmoil, we should celebrate Eid day a bit more humbly than we would any other Eid. It isn't important to buy a new peshwaaz, or whatever the heck is "in fashion" these days from that super chic boutique at Zamzama. Rather, go simple by taking out that suit you've only worn once, or go for a relatively cheaper cotton suit, while donating the rest of your budget to the relief fund. Go to the camps during maybe the second or even the first day of Eid and play with the kids, give them Eidi, spend time with the adults, lt them know that you care. How much longer are we going to ignore the population that makes up nearly 99% of Pakistan? It's important to remember those who need our help, that is what the spirit of Ramadhan teaches us and we should not forget about it, not even during Eid. Celebrate simple. Because I'm sure, we are not as ignorant as we sometimes tend to be.