Monday 5 August 2013

Family gathering in Ramadan, the sequel

I laughed so much tonight to the extent that I peed in my pants! don't ask me why, as it is obvious from the name of this post.

Firstly I must say that people must have missed my writing, as everyone had commented on how funny it was, and even my son, who is hard to please, said that if I ever write a book he will read it.  Mentioning my son, I must tell you what happened when he and his family spent about 10 days of Ramadan with us.  We all had so much fun with the baby, she was carried from one hand to the other, and we all enjoyed the chanting of my husband when he carried her (habash haban hanatoon, dada dada banaton, hantoosh albantoosh, and so on of his unwritten un-understood made-up words that made everyone happy apart from my son in law, as my husband will chant when he was sleeping in a very loud voice, if there was a contest on loud voices we will have a tie (you can guess who are the two who will win).  Also one day I gave the baby a piece of french fry, oh my god, you should have seen what happened, the baby looked around, noticed that her parents are not watching, ate it so quickly, so I gave her another one, she was almost going to stuff it in her mouth but spotted her mum looking at her! so she looked at me, and exclaimed if she can eat it? my daughter in law's lips dropped to the floor, as she and my son were trying to raise their kid on what they read on the internet?? wake up children, what is wrong with you? you had all sorts of mud, sand, rubbish on the floor and fried stuff too, I don't see that you are missing an ear or a finger!! kids of the internet!!

However, back to yesterday's post, the most rewarding complement came from our loud sister, who translated it word for word into Arabic to my other sisters who do not like to read in English (they are still old school who read, then translate to Arabic in their mind to understand what was written!! I know! they will thrash me for saying this). I almost died from laughter, as the whole situation was so funny;  my friend Shoula who came from Abu Dhabi to attend the Quraan gathering (I will tell you about it in a minute) was sitting a bit far and was talking to one of the guests, she eavesdropped on the translation and smiled, then she eavesdropped again and laughed, then she jumped from where she was sitting, pulled a chair and sat next to those that were laughing at what had been uttered by Nunu, and almost fell to the ground from laughter.

Of course some were upset on why I hadn't mentioned the good stuff that they do in Ramadan, I mean other than watching soap opera and discussing menial matters on whatsapp.  So I will tell you what we really do in Ramadan.  We spend about 5 minutes a day reading some prayers, and then jump to either the IPAD or the TV to watch our shows.  Haha they will say, as I am understating their good deeds.

I normally hold two sessions of Quraan in my house every year; its fun as we make it a point to finish the whole Quraan in one sitting; then we eat each others food, and each one of the attendees carries some of the stuff in containers so their families taste it too.  We make nice dishes in Ramadan, and during the Quraan gathering we make even nicer food; so there will be lots of desert and lots of savories.  we also have a constant supply of tea, coffee, karak tea and green tea.  Water is also a must and fruits of course, but tonight no one touched the water or the fruits.  The bowl of fruits was almost untouched, so Nunu felt bad, and took the biggest mango fruit and stuffed it into her bag.  Few nights ago, she also took our watermelon from under the chair in the kitchen and went home with it.  The next day, I felt like having watermelon, we were frantically looking for it, and we all thought that Micky (our cat) was playing with it or took it to the Garage, then the housekeeper spelled the beans.  No one can say anything, as Nunu is our youngest sister and no one dares to say anything to her? do we want to be spitted from the dogs mouth??!! (this is a Bahraini proverb by the way and it means that we will be chewed if we say anything).  Thanks Nunu for saving me from waking up at night, as the silly watermelon is known to make the person frequent the toilette after eating it.

Tonight we had a very nice gathering, as we had some charity stuff for sale too.  Shoula modeled the cloths for us, and Sawsan wanted to bring her already worn dress to exchange it as she found that the suitcase had the same dress in a bigger size! of course apart form the part that Nunu will not allow that, for Sawsan to admit that a dress is small on her is a catastrophe, its a first as she always think that she is thin (me too of course, I end up buying dresses and shirts that are few sizes smaller then me, just to make me feel good about myself, then come home and sulk because I spent money on nice dresses that I cannot wear;  so I go again shopping for weight reduction formulas from the Chinese shops).  Ok back to the subject: the charity stuff was to be sold to outsider, but we ended up buying them ourselves, Shoula is one of us of course as by now, she became a part of the family (Shosho, next time you are being scolded by Nehad please be very happy as she only does it to family)

One of the attendees tonight was a doctor, so the session ended up s a free medical consultation, Sawsan had to do operation to remove the lumps in her chest, I have to take tablets for my knees, and others had their medical advises too!  I am sure she kicked herself for showing up, as she had to treat patients in her free time.

I must say something about Maria (my niece), she didn't know what to do and what havoc to create, as all the attendees were adults, so she just moved around, checked on things, started to chew her nails, ate some sweets, listened to what we were saying, laughed a bit, but we never heard her voice. Poor thing, I must bring more kids to the house next time, I don't want her to be left alone.

I must go to prayers and sleep, everyone is praying except me, punching away on my laptop.  I feel so sleepy, so must pray in the Majlis, and then go to my room, I am sure if I go to my room and see the comfortable bed, I will just drop and snore (I do snore by the way)

Happy Ramadan everyone and will keep you posted next year.  I hope that we have similar and more interesting stuff happening with us.  We are a happy bunch.

  

2 comments:

  1. These family stories are similar in our families during the holidays too. Your post made me smile.

    Velva

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  2. Hello Velva, I was wondering if you had smiled or not. you are right, we are at the end of the day people with blood and flesh, our race etc doesn't make us different in how we think, what we think or why we think. thanks for bringing that side up.

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