Eid Celebrations……a festival of love, peace and unity

Our Indian festivals have so much social relevance, because they are occasions to meet and celebrate with family and friends. Eid also has important spiritual, emotional and social significance for me. It is a time to express love and renew ties with friends and family. Eid is a festival of love, peace and charity and definitely implies a sense of unity.

This year too, I will celebrate Eid with “open house,” as I always do. Friends and well-wishers will keep dropping in and stay on for lunch. I will personally plan the menu and see to all the tiny details. Flowers, fragrance, music and of course lights are very much a part of the celebrations. I love the festive atmosphere. This year too I am looking forward to welcoming well wishers in the true spirit of Eid, from my staff members to close friends and even eminent people. During Eid, I meet some people whom I have not met for over a year. It feels great!

This year too, I have planned a traditional welcome for guests, with flowers and fragrance. They will be received in the main sitting room, which will be done up in my signature style with flowers and the fragrance of pot pourri. As always, I am planning a delicious spread of traditional Eid lunch with aromatic biryani, korma and delicately flavoured kababs. The soft kakori kababs, that melt in the mouth, are a great favourite with my guests. There will be a variety of roti, naan and sheermal, and of course there will be delicious seviyan and kheer. We arrange for special chefs to prepare the Eid lunch. There will be a variety of dishes for vegetarians too. In fact, I also plan to include snacks and delicacies, like chaat, which Delhi is so famous for.

In keeping with tradition, we will have a “mehndi wali and churi wali” for the guests to indulge their fancy. Every year, we create the ambience of a festive “mela” right here in my home, much to the delight of my guests.

The celebrations will carry on to the strains of live music, with non-stop rendering of ghazals by a well known singer. In fact, as always my relentless efforts will be to see that each and every guest takes away the fragrance of a beautiful and memorable Eid celebration.

By Shahnaz Husain