Eid cards: A forgotten tradition

‘Ab Eid me wo maza nahi raha’ (Eid is not the same anymore) this is a common phrase that we hear almost on every Eid since we have grown up. There is nothing nostalgic in the Eid that we celebrate today; no excitement for the big bulky shopping, no guests visiting you on the day, and the major missing are the eid cards to wish each other the festival.

Eid cards were one of the excitement for all age groups. Now a days you will hardly find any cards in the market as it has gone all digital. Even the shopkeepers give you a weird look when you ask them about eid cards.

About a decade back from now, there used to be eid cards stall at every nook and corner of the locality. Varying in money, there used to be cheap ones as well as luxurious ones with three or four folds.

The more expensive the card, the more special the recipient, it was an unsaid rule. Children, teenagers and even elders would buy cards for each other. Elders would write heartfelt messages inside the cards and children would write Eid messages would differ as per relationships.

When you would want to express love to a close friend, the most common message was:

‘Chalti hai gaari urti hai dhool

Mere dost ke hath me gulab ka phool’

Or

‘Garam garam roti tori nahi jati

Mere dost se dost se dosti chori nahi jati’

If you had a friend or a colleague who was not generous enough to wish you with eid card:

‘Aam ke russ ko juice kehte hain

Jo eid card na de usay kanjoos kehte hain’

Then there were messages to tease the ones who you would not tease the whole year and wait for Eids to arrive and to annoy friends and acquaintances:

‘Siwayyan pakki hain sab ne chakhi hain

Ary tum na ro tumhare lie bhi rakhi hain’

And then there were some that made actually no sense, but we loved them and loved to dedicate them to our friends:

‘Aalu gobi matar ka daana

Gadhay per beth kar Amreeka jana’

It was a fun activity that did not cost much yet meant a lot. We, as kids, used to spend hours decorating these cards with different colours and stickers.

Then there were postcards, which had funny apes on them, Bollywood celebrities and cricketers. Usually, these cards used to be given to those who we were the least affectionate with. These were given in the name of formality and both the giver and receiver knew it.

Shopping for Eid cards used to be exciting. Surfing through hundreds of designs to choose the best ones for the people we love was gleeful. It was an act of love, an innocent token of saying thank you to people for existing in our lives.

It is sad to see that today’s generation will never experience the excitement of buying Eid cards for their friends and relatives.