7 ways to enjoy Eid at your ancestral home as a grownup
In our childhood, trips to dadu bari or nanu bari for Eid provided us with limitless joy. This should not change now that we have grown up! Although you may be burdened with responsibilities because of all the "adulting" that keeps you busy throughout the year, Eid is a time to break free, to an extent, and to grab the opportunities of sheer fun and amusement your gram er bari offers.
If your ancestral home is located in a village, here are 7 fun things to do as a grownup, many of which you have probably never tried till now.
Take a heritage tour
If you are a history buff, walk around the village to visit age-old zamindar mansions, mosques, and temples, or even a large, overgrown ancient tree which has been there seemingly forever. In your childhood, you might not have appreciated the finer aspects of such things and the folklore surrounding them.
Go fishing
Angling can be therapeutic. A lazy afternoon amidst the quietness is an afternoon well spent. On the other hand, if that sounds boring, try your hand with the fishing net or various other traditional fishing gear.
Indulge in rustic flavours
If you are lucky enough to still have a clay stove in the kitchen, fire it up to enjoy smoky flavours in your food. Moreover, villages provide the chance to relish in fresh food, from the fish, which perhaps you caught earlier, to the vegetables from nearby farmlands.
Race with toy speedboats and helicopters
Who says toys are only for children? Get your hands on a remote-controlled miniature speedboat and let the adventures begin! Put it on a pond or a canal — you may be on a real boat or at the ghat — and make the speedboat, and your mind, run wild.
An alternative to sailing the toy speedboat would be flying miniature helicopters from the uthan or courtyard.
Fly high with a drone
The open skies, as opposed to ugly tall buildings which dominate cities' skylines, offer more than one way of having fun. Sure, you may fly kites, but how about becoming an amateur drone pilot? Get a bird's eye view of your beautiful village by flying drones.
If you are a photographer at heart, dust off the DSLR — or take out your mobile phone — to put the lush greenery and nature into frames.
Count your lucky stars
When outside major cities, look up during night time. If you are unprepared, you will be pleasantly surprised to see the innumerable stars of the nocturnal sky. How crowded the sky is! In the city, light pollution and dust pollution deprive us of this wonder.
You can lie back and look for shooting stars or identify constellations. Have you ever looked through a telescope? It can be a life-altering experience. Meanwhile, even a pair of powerful binoculars can bring the moon astoundingly closer and more intimate.
Be a social butterfly
Arrange a reunion with your cousins. You may have shared a large part of the innocence of childhood with them, quite possibly at the very spot — your ancestral home — when your grandparents were alive and when times were simpler.
Stories would revolve, along with laughter and shrills, as you unfold memories, share scary tales, and so on. A barbecue party is in order as well, if the season permits.
Honourable mentions
A mere list of seven activities does not do justice. While we have shared our top seven, there is a wide array of others.
Take your bike and roam around to explore the countryside. As an adult, there is no one to draw boundaries or give curfews now!
Buy a hammock and lie down for a nap. Learn how to row a boat. Relish in the rain by playing football or sipping a cup of tea under the tin roof. The list can continue on and on.
Villages are becoming more and more modern or city-like with each passing Eid, and perhaps rightly so. One day, your ancestral home may cease to offer you many of these unique opportunities for fun but as long as it still permits, make good use of them.