Hurray! Eidul Azha is here! This great blessing of Allah is with us again. All we see everywhere are cows, goats, sheep and camels. Want to know how do I prepare for Eid and what happens at my house? Let me tell you.

We usually spend Eid’s eve bidding tearful farewells to the animals. Now I don’t want to write a ream on this and this isn’t a writer’s oeuvre. So let’s make it short, limited to an account of the blissful occasion.

Our house usually looks like it is a warehouse, with animal feed and heaps of waste, despite our best attempts to clear it and keep the place spick and span.

And in the midst of all this mayhem, our nosy neighbour comes and makes lousy remarks about our animal and we just give her a fake, hollow smile.

And then there are my friends, their catcalls from the street at odd times irritates me a lot. One would ask, “How much did you buy your animal for?”

I answer by grunting and that fool would tease, “Only Rs2000, how lucky you are!”

Now tell me, who thinks that they can get a cow on this rate in this century? I just want to hit such fools full on the face.

Well, when our cow is fed and given water, we ravenously eat our food and as soon as we hit the bed, we are fast asleep. Taking care of an animal is hard work!

On the day of Eid, we feel sad at parting with our sacrificial animals but when we realise that we are sacrificing it as a remembrance of the great sacrifice by Prophet Ibrahim (A.S.), it cheers us up.

Well friends, I have to go and feed my cow now and play with it, for soon I will be parting with it. Have a blessed Eidul Azha!

Published in Dawn, Young World September 2nd, 2017