Eid from an atheist’s eye

Sumit Paul

ANY festival gives intrinsic joy and Ramzan Eid is no exception. Having lived in Islamic countries like Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Lebanon, Syria and North African countries, I have always felt from the recesses of my heart that this festival, like all other festivals, belongs to every individual, even to an atheist like me, who never tied himself to the apron-strings of any religion. But my most memorable occasions of Eid have been in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. 

 I have a legion of Muslim friends across the world. I remember how eagerly I would look forward to devouring sheer-khurma and getting Eidee from elders. My professor of Urdu, Dr Tahira Naqqash, who guided my MPhil theses on Urdu poet Raghupati Sahay Firaq Gorakhpuri’s poetry at Islamabad University, Pakistan, still sends me Eidee and new clothes. Her sheer-khurma was the best I ever had anywhere in the world. 

  One Pakistani Muslim editor carried my first-ever piece in Urdu in his daily. It was on Eid. He kept rejecting my pieces until I got his hand-written letter in Urdu that he was carrying my piece on Eid-ul-Fitr as an Eidee to me. He also sent me a box of sweets and a T-shirt. Though I never wore a T-shirt in my whole life, I wore it on Eid in deference to his affection. 

In Lucknow, I got a call from an elderly Muslim gentleman on the day of Eid. He began with ‘Eid mubarak ho’. It was all the more special to me because I did criticise his piece written a fortnight prior to Eid. My criticism was quite scathing. But he chose to forget and forgive and invited me over. I got a lovely sherwani from him which I still wear on special occasions. I realised that festivals gave magnanimity to people and diluted all ill-feelings. This is the essence of not just Eid, but of all festivals. 

 In London, my Muslim professor of Persian would call me home and treat me lavishly during Eid-ul-Fitr. He was originally from Baghdad but studied in Tehran like me and would correct my fractured English.

 Celebrating Eid and Diwali with my friends from different religious backgrounds, I understood that festivals helped create bonhomie and bonds. While enjoying a festival, one is never a Muslim, Hindu or a Christian. All festivals pare us down to being just human beings without any labels. 

  To celebrate a festival with equanimity and equipoise is the essence of it. It brings people of all hues and shades together and demolishes man-made artificial barriers and boundaries.