When I was young my young parents had set some family/house rules and practices. Some of which I still follow and some of which I have altered. It was understood that the lunch that took place after school included rice,and the dinner at 8pm included roti. On Eid or any sacred religious night I had to make sure to visit my grandparents. Phone time and meeting friends was something to be practiced on weekends and pulao was served for lunch on every Friday.
Every chand raat my mother would make a list of things to buy for the next big day which included a cake from MASTERS. Masters was our “go-to” for cakes for every occasion. I would go with my father to Gurumandar to buy a cake, balloons and a Mehendi cone. He would let me choose the flavor and I would always choose Coffee Crunch.
This is a childhood memory. It is a memory because we don’t get our cakes from Masters anymore. We just buy it from the nearest Delfrio outlet.
This memory was refreshed when one day out of the blue my father got the coffee crunch cake on his way back home. He told me how much he missed going cake shopping with me. It was then when I realized that as I grew up I have left behind so many family traditions without realizing the effects on people attached to it.
I reach home pretty late from my university hence my lunch is in my room, alone. I sleep late and wake up late hence I skip breakfast. I am on a diet so I skip dinner hence there is hardly any family time. If I have my exams I skip meeting grandparents. I do feel guilty about not keeping up with the past traditions, but I explain to myself that I have changed and change is inevitable. Hence I try and take the middle road. Lunch and dinner are a day to day thing and I can’t hold myself from my activities to participate in them. Whereas occasions like bari raat, chand raat, Eid, parent’s anniversary, etc are moments which give me a chance to make myself and my parents feel that their little girl is still there clapping and singing “HAPPY EID MUBARAK” while Mama cuts the Eid cake.
Ammarah Imran 