The Adventures of Team Parker

This Eid, one of the craziest I’ve had in years. It was non-stop visiting from the minute Sameer got home from mosque. Sure there were two brief lulls (also known as “lunch” and “dinner) but the rest of it was spent driving from one end of Cape Town to another, punctuated with “Eid Mubarak”, handshakes and kisses, quick tastes of cake, pudding, sana, barfee, pies, eclairs, cashew nuts, chocolate, trifle, tart, fruit khier, sherfurma, tea, cooldrink and punch. I get a stomach ache just thinking about it. Oh, and random aunties asking me when the “little Sameers” are coming. (I don’t know about that but what about the little Faranaazs? Why the discrimination?) There were loads of babies, babies everywhere and very, very sick elderly people. My six o’clock I was suffering from sensory overload. I couldn’t take all the noise and bustle any more. I’m used to an afternoon lull on Eid, a chance to go home and change out of my outfit, take a nap or maybe a shower if it’s hot. Quiet time to recharge before going out again for the afternoon session of greeting but there was none of that this year. I became extremely irritable. Finally reprieve — a visit to see the Nordiens’ new house, a chance to do something quite and normal if only for 15 minutes. Sit on the couch eating potatoe chips and talking about normal things, handshakes and kisses kept to a minimum, no questions about little Sameers or Faranaazes and nobody sick or dying. Then round two.

Our last visit of the day was perhaps the best. We went to the Hendrickses and shared a wicked cream cheese/peanutbutter/orea tart and then initiated a Skype chat with the ODLMs, which was probably not such a good idea because ten minutes in we were suffering a sugar high. I don’t know what being drunk or high is like but after this I think I have a pretty good idea. We laughed so hard that we couldn’t breathe and I can’t even remember why. In the end Sameer (who hadn’t had as much sugar as the rest of us) had to terminate the call because we’d become incoherent.

For people like Sameer and myself — who are generally uncomfortable in social settings — seeing the Hendrickses is always a validating experience. It always reminds me that we’re not abnormal weirdos who don’t fit in anywhere. We’re just different. But there are people who get us, appreciate us and make us laugh. And we make them laugh too.

We eventually got home after eleven and crashed from exhaustion. Longest. Eid. Ever…