Eid 2024 with Gafoor and friends

Prawns were paying for their sins. They were being burned on the stove and had chilly powder rubbed into their eyes. It was drizzling as I brought in the prawns biriyani to Gafoor's house for the Eid potluck. Familiar looking items had already taken their spots at the buffet table in the garage. Costco chairs and tables were set - complete with stylish blue table cloth skirting from Alvin. 

It was after 2 PM when we reached a second time, this time with family.  I went staight into the buffet line and started serving my plate. Jacob was there next to me.  I looked for a familiar face and sat diagonally opposite Alvin who was engaged with deep technical discussions with Basil. Gafoor came and sat opposite me, and it felt like it has been a long while since we had just talked one on one. Bobby and Adarsh joined the table and the discussions steered into the movie world. 

Adarsh made me kneel down and write "Aadujeevitham is not worth a ten on ten". He was very clear and did not give me any wiggle room on his stance. Bobby joined in and commented that Blessy is a director with significant limitations. Bobby does watch a lot of non-malayalam movies and has pretty much watched all the recent ones that I had been excited about. Great conversations. 

We were like talking and eating, and eating and talking and finally Gafoor said - it is time to take a photo, no rush.  The prawns had come full circle as I quickly finished the ones in my plate. 

Got time to quickly catch up with Aiza. She told me she got the next stripe on her Taekwando belt, but that she got it by cheating. What? How did you do that? She said she took the stripe sticker from her older belt and pasted it on the new one. Elementary.    

I introduced myself to Jaanki Eva Darsh - looking all pretty and smiling in her beautiful pink dress. And then all the uncles and aunties smothered so much attention that she started crying.  

Great catching up - fun times! 

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