Eid-ul-Fitr 2013 and relatives visiting Pakistan for the first time :D

I have been so busy for the last few days that I had no time to write all the stories and hardships of life I was going through. whenever Eid (the muslim festival) comes, it always bring with it all the cleaning of the house, buying new clothes, preparing sweet dishes and grooming ourselves to meet friends and family; but for some, it brings more than that. And I was that special one who was bestowed with all the work in this world on this particular Eid.

My maternal uncle from England planned to visit us this Eid with his british-born son named Adeel.

So, at first, I was like is he really coming to Pakistan !!! Because Adeel has never been to Pakistan and that's why I have never seen him before in my life. I was so excited that I remember the times when I used to spend sleepless nights due to over excitement. I have always been like this.

So, as soon as we got the news of him coming along with his son, we made a list of the things which needed to be done. Because now we had 2 reasons for doing all the big stuff - first is that it was Eid and the second is that we were having him with us and everybody likes to be their best when they meet someone for the first time in their lives.

So all in all, after all the big things like making a chandelier out of card board for my lounge,

A soap dish and tooth brush holder for toilet, fixing the mirror on a wall in lounge and exchanging our old iron cupboard for a new wrought iron dining table :D, we were all ready to welcome them in Karachi, Pakistan. Although they were going to stay in a hotel but I knew that they will be meeting us very frequently during the whole time of their stay, and yes I was right ! We spent almost all the days being a tour guide for Adeel.

This is the photo which I have from the moment when I saw Adeel for the first time in my life. His daddy i.e. my Mamoo has visited Pakistan several times before.

During the first days, we visited some places and family friends for the last aftari and dinner of this year, 2013 in which we were served khajoor, three types of pakora, samosa, cheese balls, melon slices, mango slices and of course the red refreshing rooh afza or jam-e-shireen. And for dinner, we had chicken masala boti, bhindi gosht of lamb, roti and naan and a big bowl of stupid salad :P We were ok but Adeel was not enjoying at all as he doesn't understand Urdu. So he preferred to go back to hotel when we planned for Dolmen Mall - Sea View (the new posh mall in the city of lights) which has a built-in Hyperstar in it, for the chaand raat festivities.

We came home around 4 that night and enjoyed a lot there.

Then on the Eid Day, Adeel wore shalwar kameez (traditional pakistani dress for men) and looked absolutely handsome and gorgeous.

Then we had lush food and some traditional pakistani mithai brought by Mamoo and sent by my wonderful brother all the way from Dubai, U.A.E.

The mamoo bought gourmet from Sheraton:

Brother sent Ambala,

a fruit basket,

 

  

and a lovely greeting card:

But me and Adeel, not being so traditional, ordered KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) Zinger, Hot shots, french fries and soft drinks because Adeel told me that KFC has no home delivery system in UK and I was like :-o

This is the photo of the yummy KFC delivery:

And later that evening after lotsss of gossips, we went to Arena Gaming Area

And played many games there and enjoyed ice cream too. Then for dinner at night, we preferred China Town Restaurant as Adeel desperately wanted to taste the Pakistani version of Chinese cuisine. Here is a photo:

So all in all, 1st day of Eid proved to be the best of their days with us.

On the second day of Eid, we went to hotel very early in the morning as Adeel woke early that day and was bored as his daddy i.e. My Big Mamoo was in gym. So me and Adeel had some absolute fun with the dhoti or better dhotis :P which he had brought with him and had nice aloo samosas and slices of delicious vanilla sponge cake.

Then we went to Hyperstar because Adeel wanted another shalwar kameez for him and some dresses from Sana Safinaz for his mum but he ended up buying a cool t-shirt from bonanza only.

There we had optp (one potato two potato) masala fries, plain fries and some diet 7up. Then later that evening, we got stuck in the traffic ... Very badly ... And remained stuck there for almost 5-6 hours.

While we were in the middle of the traffic jam, me and Adeel discussed about a lot of differences we have in between Pakistan and United Kingdom like the quality of living, cost of living, style of people talking in the traffic jam stress and many other things were discussed too.

It was then Adeel asked us that if he can stay at our home for a night or two and we said HELL YESSS ! :D

So after having enough of traffic jams for the whole evening, we finally reached hotel around 1 AM to pick up the necessary stuff for him and came back home. But till then after sitting for almost 5 continuous hours in the car, he was not feeling good and it turned into diarrhea when the clock struck 4 AM. So we had to call Mamoo because he had the tablets which they brought with themselves all the way from United Kingdom to be used in the case of any emergency and after this unsuccessful attempt of staying at our home he went back to hotel with his daddy.

On the 3rd day of Eid which was a calm moring as Adeel was not feeling very good but was ok to go out and have some fun on the Eid. We started late that evening as we were having my chacha’s family at dinner. So we quickly visited Ocean Mall and the Farid’s there.

Adeel bought some stuff which he has never seen in England – A genie lamp :D

And I bought some chocolates and crisps. Then we came back home at around 8 that evening and entertained our guests which had bought us some yummy mithai too – My personal favourite “Chum Chum.”

The food we enjoyed at the dinner were biryani,

Nihari,

 raita,

 different types of mithaiyan,

and some vanilla and chocolate sponge marble cake:

 

Meanwhile Adeel got very bored because he doesn’t understand Urdu and always had that difficulty during his stay. So he went to the bed room and slept there until they were gone.

When he woke up later that night at around 1 AM he said he wants to cook some Dahl and have it for his dinner. So when he started cooking he said he is not feeling like he can really cook and just after that he had a vomit … he was trembling with loss of energy or may be with the fear of being that ill. But we had to call Mamoo again and he came with the tablets and took Adeel back to hotel with him.

The next morning was a calm one as Adeel was in bed and we waited for him to get some good rest and start the day when he feels like it. But when we reached hotel later that evening, we noticed that he has no energy left to get up and explore Karachi. He was suffering from diarrhea, fever, muscle aches and vomits. Definitely it was the condition which many suffer when they visit any Asian country for the first time in their life. So I stayed in the hotel room with him for almost 6 hours and he slept quite calmly that evening which helped him get some energy refilled.

While I was sitting bored in the room I started reading the “Sweet or Savory” food menu of Sheraton’s room service. There in the book, I found a bit surprising common sense mistake that I wonder why no one has ever pointed it out !? Can you find out the mistake in this photo which I clicked ?

Anyways, I came back home at around 4 AM that night.

The next day was the last day with them. We went to hotel and Adeel was lying in his daddy’s bed for the whole day and his daddy was packing the entire luggage and was getting done with all the stuff. We gave Adeel some good-bye gifts like this one:

Which made him a bit cheered up, but poor boy stayed completely in bed for the last two days.

And then came the most difficult time … the time to say good-bye …

I have always hated good-byes in my life. I don’t know why but I always cry a lot and get very sick when someone leaves. So when I hugged Mamoo I felt very sad but when I hugged Adeel, I broke into tears, although I was thinking that I will not cry in front of Adeel but all of a sudden I couldn’t control and was crying remembering all the moments we spent together the massage, the long talks, quick phone calls, games everything.

This is the photo which I took when I was leaving Starwood Hotels' Sheraton Hotel  and Resort - Karachi for the last time.

Ahh … miss u so much Adeel … Hope to see you again x xx xxx