I Love Eid Cards ‹ Ali Adnan

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I Love Eid Cards

Ally Adnan TFT Issue: 25 Jul 2014

Sending out Eid cards to friends and family members was never a simple exercise for

me. It required a series of elaborate rituals, each one of which brought me a lot of

happiness. I started to send out Eid cards when I was nine years old. Forty years later, I

still do.

The irst step involved ma!ing a schedule for the pro"ect during the irst two days of

#am$an. The irst batch of cards % the one that was sent overseas % had to be mailed on

the tenth day of #am$an. &ards with 'a!istani addresses were sent out on the twentieth

of #am$an.

e Eid Cards The Friday Times http://www.thefridaytimes.com/tft/i-love-e

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Ally Adnan, far le, with his family in Lahore

I always started by compiling a list of recipients with the help of my mother. #ecipients

fell in different categories, each requiring a different type of card. The irst category was

that of religious people( their cards could not have any igural images. I bought cards

with loral patterns for them. Then there were those who did not !now English and

needed cards that were in )rdu. * third category was that of my personal friends. I

bought cards with funny messages for them. Family members got cards with artistic

images. Teachers received cards with images related to 'a!istan and 'a!istani history.

The people that I li!ed the most % my paternal )ncle and all three of my maternal aunts

% got what I considered fancy cards. These always cost more than the other cards and

were often layered.

Imperial Book Depot used to carry an incredible variety of


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Eid cards

The next step was to buy the cards. I was allowed a generous three hours for this

purpose by my mother. This was barely enough time for a tas! I too! so seriously.

*rmed with my categori$ed list and money that I had saved, I would go to my favorite

shop in +ahore, the Imperial oo! -epot, on the all. The staff at the store !new me

well % I used to go there two or three times a wee! % and had learnt to deal with my

obsessive behavior mainly by letting me be on my own, without any help or

interruptions. Imperial used to carry an incredible variety of Eid cards, forcing me to

use my three hours wisely. *fter purchasing the cards, I would head further down the

all to the /eneral 'ost 0fice to buy stamps. The /'0 carried a larger variety of stamps

than smaller post ofices. Strangely, they never had Eid1themed stamps. I did not li!e

this because I used to see Eid stamps of other countries and wished that 'a!istan would

issue some as well. It wasn2t until much later that the 'a!istan 'ost 0fice started

releasing stamps for Eid.

Handmade cards were replaced by mass-produced ones

The custom of sending greeting cards at Eid, in India and in what is now 'a!istan,

started towards the end of the 34th century. 5andwritten messages wishing you a

happy Eid had been sent using messengers for some centuries before that time. This

was an expensive process and few could afford it. The advent of a postal system,

advances in printing and mechani$ation, and the ready availability of printed cards

revolutioni$ed the custom. Expensive, handmade and hand1delivered cards were

replaced by mass1produced ones sent through the mail.


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Vintage Eid postcard with a pre-wrien message


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est wishes of Eid to my friends

est wishes of Eid to my well1wishers

The lover and the beloved, the pious and the sinful

est wishes of Eid to all four

'ersonal messages were often printed on early Eid cards to cater to buyers who were

not literate and, perhaps, those who did not have the time to write personal messages.

Sending cards with photographs of actors became popular

in the 1!"s

ost of the Eid cards used in 'a!istan continued to be printed in India for several years

after the 'artition. The custom gained greater popularity with affordable airmail

services. *s time passed, companies in 'a!istan started manufacturing Eid cards.

*rchitectural images started appearing on Eid cards at this time. Sending cards with

photographs of actors became popular in the 34


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Early Eid card with an image of a star

The tradition prospered until the advent of electronic communication. =ow people

found it easier to wish one another Eid over email( it was free and more convenient. *s

electronic communication became more powerful, the quality and content of messages


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improved tremendously. It became possible to incorporate images, videos, sound iles,

and a lot else into messages sent electronically. The new bells and whistles encouraged

more people to give up sending paper cards. The advent of social media resulted in

people having thousands of >friends? all over the globe. Sending wishes to such a large

number of people was feasible only by using electronic communication. * beautiful wish

could be sent to thousands of people with the clic! of a button at no cost.

Sending paper Eid cards requires time, money and effort. *ll three have become dearer

as time has passed, encouraging people to abandon the custom. Sadly, the very reason

people have stopped sending Eid cards is the reason that they should be sending them.

Friends and family members deserve some of our time, money and effort. *nd very little

of each is needed to mail cards.

Pakistani Eid Postage tamps ! "#$"

=o amount of email messages can !indle the emotions I experience when I go through a

few of the more than @,777 cards that I have received during the last forty or so years

and that I have saved with great care. If only people !new what a veritabledocumentation of personal history % coming of age, gain and loss, love and betrayal,

success and failure, birth and passing, and a whole lot else % a collection of Eid cards isA

*s I sit in -allas writing Eid cards this #am$an, I hope they will bring a smile to the

faces of the recipients. I want my friends and family members to thin! of me at Eid and

!now that they were in my thoughts during the celebration. ore importantly, I want

them to !now that I en"oy spending time, money and energy sending Eid cards to people


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that I care about. Sending wishes with the clic! of a button is not the way to tell

someone they are valued. In my opinion, it is cheap, irreverent and uncaring.

Ally Adnan lives in Dallas, Texas, where he works in the ield of mobile telecommunications

and writes about culture and the arts. He loves to receive Eid cards the aer kind and

can be reached at allyadnan!outlook.com. All vinta"e Eid cards used in this article are

from the ersonal collection of the author

Tags: Culture

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I Love Eid Cards ‹ Ali Adnan