2009 Iftar Party Report

As salaamu Alaikoom

Well, it's certainly been a minute since my last posting. Then again, these days my entries have started off with this statement. My scapegoat is the married life, which I enjoy, of course, but I'm just sayin that I'm able to blog this entry while my wife is out of the house.

Onwards...

This years party was perhaps the largest in size, mashaAllah, with a total of 34 people. Add a few more to that number when you factor in my family. Most were surprised -- as was I -- on the number and I particularly got a kick out of Aladdin's comment of, "Dude, when this thing started it was just me, you, and your brothers." By the way, props to my boys Sami, Aladdin, Harris (HP), Omar, and Fahad for attending every year, Alhamdullilah. I think Farooq and potentially Baseer might be in that category, too. (Apologies if I left you out.)

Oh, and I want to especially hate on the following: Mofeez, Kamran Ch, Tariq, and Imran ("The Mizz"), and Princess Hassan for confirming their attendance but never showing up! Even if you texted or called me or had a valid excuse like a new born (Tariq's case) or your father is in town (Hassan), I still reserve the right to put you guys on blast, dang it!

Next, let's talk food:
This year's menu was also done on a bigger scale as I had a team of cooks. MBN to be me! Seriously, I'm a lucky guy to have somehow been able to convince my mother, wife, sister-in-law, father-in-law, and mother-in-law to cook stuff for the event. SubhanAllah! May Allah protect all of them and give them endless joy and success always. Ameen! Because of this team that I assembled, the dessert menu in particular and the "iftari table" as well were more stacked than usual with things like pakoras, 150 samosas (aloo, keema, and cheese varieties), homemade dip (well, everything was homemade), juices, dahi baray, cholay, grasshoppers (the square mint green stuff), Oreo chocolate ice cream cake, graham cracker pudding thing, peanut butter brownies, orange creamsicle, and even a Hydro dish. All that, mashaAllah, plus the main meals of meatball/egg salan, chicken pulao (rice), rita, another salan dish, bindi (okra), daal, and spaghetti (namely for the Arabs!).

Just take a look at this picture of a bunch of the guys swooping around the table like vultures when it came to dessert. While I didn't capture it on film, this crowd later morphed from a flock of swooning vultures into a ferocious horde of lions waiting to pounce on its prey as my wife and sisters kept taking out more desserts (with the assault led by Sarosh)...


Animals, I tell you!

Okay, so we all know the food is the only reason people take time to fill out applications for the Passport to Plainfield. Now let's get into some of the highlight reels, shall we?

1) First and foremost is Thabraize's and Mumu's financial hour. T&A Accounting was apparently a major sponsor in hosting last night's Iftar party as he was given the floor in explaining how to work the system (legally, too, supposedly). I'm looking into getting a transcript to post later on because summarizing what Thabraize and Mustafa said would require at least a 10 page blog entry. This was the only point of the evening where someone unconditionally had the floor as we all sat in silence. Except for Riyality, of course, and his always hysterical quips (i.e. calling Thabraize cheap because Thabraize gets 1 mile per dollar spent on his credit card whereas The Riyality Show gets like a million miles per dollar spent or something like that...).

2) While this year's party had the most attendees, the usual number of people that stayed past midnight was notably less than in the past. MAD props to Sami and Samir for coming back from taraweeh after the taraweeh they attended ended at 1am. And also to Farooq and Quad for coming back from the city! Now that's love and dedication, man. I am still in disbelief, however, that Irfan and SIM left so early last night. Usually, they're always down to bang until the wee hours of the night. I guess they're officially on lock-down. As SIM left with his head down slowly walking back to his car, Quad was just coming back into the house and told him that "Pac is the new SIM!" (SIM didn't take that lightly and told us jokingly to "Go to hell." Fortunately, hell/shaytan is locked up this month!)

3) The last guests (Sami, Samir, and Awais) left at 3am. And in yearly time-honored fashion, I did in fact remove my shirt for the viewing pleasure of all. However, this year, I waited until the end to do so as what I'm sure Samir and Sami will regard as a royal treat. As an aside, the past two years the Iftar party went up to Fajr, but to my wife's appreciation, it didn't this year. Next year, I will chain some of the guys to the basement to make up for it...

4) I beat both Quad and Awais in Madden. Effortlessly.

5) As all of you know when you read my Evite, I always mention an option of praying taraweeh at home. Let's face it, this is more of a joke and never manifests. But this year, my BIL, HP, lead a handful of the guys in taraweeh in the basement, mashaAllah. Alhamdullilah, a phenom blessing.

So there's probably many other quotes or events of the night that took place that deserve mention on the blog, but the best part time-after-time is the brotherhood factor. As Muslims, we're blessed to have such a high regard and love for brotherhood and to me this is what I love seeing. I love sitting back at times to watch everyone have a good time. Allah has blessed me with some of the best of company, so much love to all you. May Allah protect you all, give you good health, happiness, and a long and successful life in the footsteps of the Beloved Rasool (sw). May Allah bring you all -- all of us -- closer to Him and His Prophet (sw). Allah huma sali Allah Muhammad. Ameen!

Alright, feel free to comment your own highlight reels or anything else you want to add in. MAD JZK to everyone for coming through with special shot out to my brother Umar and his wife Nida for flying in from Providence, RI mainly in honor of this tradition, mashaAllah! It wouldn't have been the same without you.

Please keep me & the family in your duas, fellas.


Until next Ramadhaan!