Bakra in the House

Yes, yes I know Eid-al-Adha was more than a month and a half ago, I'm just lazy. Actually I plain forgot. I love taking pictures and was contemplating re-cultivating the habit of carrying my super slim camera everywhere (even though I have my eyes on a big ass Nikon D70 and even that I'm sure I'd want to take wherever I go). Ah so back to contemplating, I realized that all the random pictures I have taken in the past few months are still in my memory stick. Argh! To cut it short I was going through my camera and found the pictures of the bakra that I, myself, personally, out of my own pocket, got for this Eid. Costed me 10,000 Pakistani Rupees (Thats sadly just 160$ when converted however quite expensive when it comes to standard qurbani bakra rates. Magnificient isn't he? (was tasty too!)

Quizzical

Nonchalant

A little expounding for the unaware (I do tend to over analyze anyway): 'Bakra' is Urdu for 'male goat'. 'Qurbani' is Urdu for 'Sacrifice'. 'Eid-ul-Adha' is a religious festival celebrated by Muslims worldwide as a commemoration of Prophet Ibrahim's (Abraham's) willingness to sacrifice his son Ismail (Ishmeal), as commanded by Allah. As it is narrated in the Quran, Prophet Ibrahim dreamt that Allah wanted him to kill his beloved son. To show his willingness to obey Allah, Ibrahim got ready to kill his son, closed his eyes. He did it, but when he opened his eyes, Allah had replaced his son with a lamb of heaven. This was the beginning of Eid ul Adha.

Muslims the world over observe the festival by sacrificing animal, mainly goats, sheep, cows or camels. The animal has to meet certain standards of age and quality for the sacrifice to be valid. Its compulsory on adult and affording Muslims. The meat is traditionally divided into three equal parts. One is kept by the family, the second is distributed among friends and family while the third is distributed among the poor.

For as long as I remember we get a portion in a cow every year since its much more convenient. The cow gets slaughtered in the nearby mosque and you just go and pick up the meat. However since this was my first qurbani I insisted on getting a bakra in addition to mom's portion in the cow. I promptly named him 'poochoo' for the very brief duration of his stay at our place. Of course getting a bakra entailed feeding, watering and walking it as well. Poocho proved to be quite spirited and once actually ran after mom horns at the ready dragging the entire post to which he was tied behind him! Mom in a stroke of brilliance decided to run in a circle to get him off her tail ... sadly he followed without even the slightest hesitation. The circle was eventually broken with mom running up the stairs of the house with the bakra somewhat inhibited by the heavy post he was dragging. He also frequently got involved in horn-ramming matches with our neighbour's bakra, which though hillarious to look at was worrisome at the same time because had any bakra gotten injured, it wouldn't have have been suitable for sacrifice anymore. This of course was easily taken care of by tie-ign the beasts at opposite ends of the porch, which resulted in the two bleating at each other incessantly for the remaining duration of their stay.

The antagonist, neighbour's bakra

Anyway my first qurbani, needless to say am quite proud of it!