“Parrot Isn’t Hungry”: On Family, Food, Fasting, and Ramadan
This Eid will not be Eid until I’ve spent time crying and laughing, describing the aromas of foods that are not here.
Parrot isn’t hungry,
Pasta:Pasta,
actually
To me, now, Eid feels like Eid only when, coming home from namaaz, I briefly catch a whiff of air, thick and smoky with incense, cardamom, and rich cream. My own kitchen, though, will have no sticks slowly burning to ash on the kitchen counter; no pot just about boiling over with sheer kurma; no sisters frantically searching for shoes to match their shalwar kameez or Mumma suggesting another shade of lipstick or Daddy telling us we’ll all be late, again.

Gulnaz Saiyed is a Muslim/American/Desi writer based in Chicago. Her work has been published by Brain Mill Press Voices, the Huffington Post, and the Georgia Review. She's working on her first novel and a collection of essays. You can follow her on Twitter and read more of her writing on Medium.
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