Lately I've alhamdo lillah had the opportunity to see my nieces and nephews eat and I can't help but notice just how similar their eating habits are to the masnoon etiquette, subhan Allah. When left to their own accord, a child will prefer to sit on the floor to eat, eat with his hands when he does, speak while eating and have no qualms about sharing the food on his plate with another, or picking food off another's plate as well.
We as civilized adults of the modern age tend to replace these inherent habits with what we regard as the etiquette of eating.
The Etiquette of Eating
Arey nahin yaar!
Arey, you are 42% Pakistani!
Not bad, but not good enough to call yourself a real Pakistani either! You seem more London than Lahore, so why not try wearing a shalwar kameez for a week and maybe that'll bump up your rating...
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Whole World in My Hands
When Rafeh and I would play hide-and-seek, I would be left doing the counting regardless of whose turn it is to hide. He's just learning his numbers, so my he would repeat each number as I would say it. It made me think I could just about say anything in a sequence and he would take that to mean numbers. Such is the delight in playing with an innocent mind.
So the numbers one through ten could have names of vegetables like, aik, bhindi, chikkander, karaila and so on...
Reminds me of the time when I was teaching Sehyr "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" with the actions, and when it came to making a diamond in the sky, I taught her that the diamond was actually called, "DeBeers." So for a while after that, whenever I would tell Sehyr to show me DeBeers, she's make a diamond shape with her hands.
Such habits make me a lousy candidate for a baby-sitter unless the parents were people who are unaware of my tendencies.
Browsing Through
I really dislike window-shopping. I do not have the patience to sift through things that I know I will not buy. I usually go shopping when I am certain of what I need, I buy exactly that and I step out. This quality makes me a terrible person to take along on shopping sprees.
Recently I've come up with a list of places I'd window-shop any given day.
1) Places with books - any bookstore, stall keeping books, garage sale with books. I have been told more than once that I'm a pain in book-stores since I take forever in looking through everything.
Yet, I had such a wonderful time with Afshan spending an afternoon at a book-store. Maybe because neither of us minded having done that, alhamdo lillah.
I can also go on endlessly about obscure book titles with Halima, and we can have a laugh just about anywhere with that. Hours of endless entertainment.
Also, heading out towards Saeed Book Bank in Islamabad, Liberty Books in Karachi or Barnes and Noble in Umreeka is taking the easy way out. It is rummaging through books on a sidewalk store and finding one you've been looking for that feels most rewarding. Alhamdo lillah.
2) the Disney Store - I pray I never outgrow the Disney Store. I always head straight towards the stuffed toys on sale section and coo at each character I see there. I hug each one to check its hug-o-meter and bundle up the ones I'd like to keep under one arm.
The snow-globes. Oh, the snow-globes. And the coffee-mugs. The slippers, the pajamas. The stuffed toys on sale. The Disney Store is to me what balloons are to Winnie the Pooh. He says, "Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon." I couldn't agree more.
3) the Fossil store - I don't watch television that much, but there was a time when I heard a phrase resound in almost every Indian channel / show my mother was tuned to. "Mind-blowing." No, not merely mind-blowing, it's pronounced, "mmmmindblowingg" in double-time. I have no clue as to what gets the Indians so enthusiastic as to use that term just about everywhere, but the Fossil store with its watches, bags, wallets, oh the leather and the colors, now that experience is truly, utterly mmmmindblowingg.
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