Eid - The Most Depressing Holiday Ever

I hate holidays. Especially the ones you have to spend with your family.

Coming from a dysfunctional family, my Eids have progressed from being extremely happy to extremely lonely. It is during Eid that I have to face the reality I try to forget all year round. It is on Eid that I realize that all my friends have families (Mashallah) that they are busy with. The pretense of having lots of people around me breaks and I'm left with a serene boredom that turns into a depressing void by the 3rd day.

The Eid right after my sister's death was especially depressing. I spent the first day with my family, not really dressing up or enjoying myself. By the end of the day, I was sure of the fact that if I stayed inside the house for a few more days, I would definitely go crazy.

Eid Day 2, Euphoria, Zamzama.

So, the 2nd day of Eid, I called up Imti for breakfast. Imti was a close friend at the time and I thought I would relax with him for a bit and then head back home. Unfortunately, Imti decided to bring along a complete stranger to the breakfast, making things slightly awkward for all three of us. We politely chatted about the weather and about how Rehman Malik was an ass as we cut into our salads and waffles at Butler's Chocolate Cafe.

By this time, I had subconsciously registered the fact that if I was ever bored, I could call up one of my newly found buddies for help. We would hang out, smoke, drink coffee and forget the troubles of the world for a few hours.

And that is exactly what I did. I called A up.

We spent a couple of hours driving around the city, picking our friends up and finally we reached Euphoria at Zamzama. There, we had shisha and a few Chicken Steaks as we laughed our heads off at absolutely random crap.

Even with all the shit going on in my life, something about these people was making me smile again.

The Coffee

Coffee has had a very huge significance in our relationship. It's not that either of us loves coffee a lot, it's just that various coffee houses across the city, namely and mainly Gloria Jeans, have given us a venue to build most of our memories on.

I remember the first time I called him to hang out. I had been to a very mundane iftaar party thrown by my boss at the time and was not willing to go home feeling so low.

So I placed a call to A and texted the rest of the people who I had met earlier with him. We all decided to hit Gloria Jeans for a cup of coffee.

When we got there, he suddenly realized that he was out of smokes. As he started to get back in the car to go buy some, I stopped him.

'I have some in my bag'

'Which ones?'

'Marlboro Lights... Pakistani.'

'Yaar, isko group main add karlete hain.'

That, I guess, was the beginning of our friendship for me.

Chapter 1 - The First Time I Met Him

It had been a depressing Ramzan. The recent death of my sister coupled with a terrible relationship with my boyfriend and a sad domestic life had left barely any signs of happiness in me.

When I got the Facebook message from a recently found friend of an iftaar party, I was less than excited to attend it.

I viewed the guest list over and over and finally spotted a few familiar names. I hadn't met these guys in a long time, refusing their invitations of movie hangouts and meet ups. This would be an ideal situation to meet all of them at once and get the social responsibility out of the way. Also, it would be a change in my dreary routine.

I dressed in a gray dress and tights and wore a black shawl over it before I got in a rickshaw towards my destination. I didn't need to fix my hair thanks to the rebonding treatment I had gotten done recently. My hair fell perfectly into place without any effort.

As I entered the restaurant, I quickly scanned where the party was sitting and made my way across to them. After greeting them with overflowing enthusiasm, I settled down on a chair next to a friend.

I was meeting many of these people for the first time but I knew most of them from one social media network or the other.

That's when I first laid eyes on him. He was... radiant. That's how I would describe him. There was a brightness that seemed to emit from his personality that made me instantly like him. Even now, when I look at his face, I'm immediately drawn by his power.

I didn't really pay much notice to him after deciding mentally that he was the prettiest of the lot, after all, much conversation had to be made, much social obligation had to be fulfilled, before the evening would be over.

It wasn't until we all decided to head towards Cafe Clifton for tea after the Iftaar that I got a chance to talk to him.

Since I had come in a rickshaw, I needed a ride to the Cafe and coincidentally, I sat in his car for the short ride.

I was immediately overcome by the smell of fish. This amazingly cute guy. His car. Smelled. Like. Fish.

He noticed my expressions and his face broke into a smile. That's when he explained that he was a businessman. He worked as a seafood exporter, hence the smell of fish in his car.

During that ten minute drive, he told me about his work, his education and a funny story about how him and his group of friends had been stopped by the police once while on their way to the beach.

And that, is the day I met the love of my life. At that point I only knew I liked him. I didn't know if we would be friends or not. I only knew that I had decided I really liked this guy.