City Faith – Bakra Eid, Matia Mahal
The ritual of sacrifice.
[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi]
The goat was priced at Rs 7,000. It was purchased by the head of the family two days before Eid ul Zuha, or the feast of sacrifice, also known as Bakra Eid. The special bazaar for the festival was held in front of the Mughal-era Jama Masjid.
The goat’s final home was a mansion in Matia Mahal, a neighborhood in Shahjahanabad. Fed with gular leaves, dry rotis and grains, it looked cheery. The children often kissed its head.
On Eid morning, the butcher arrived a few hours after the namaaz. Booked by many households in the area, he was in dark blue pajamas. As he took out his knife, the boys of the family gathered around the goat; one of them held its legs.
Watching from upstairs, the mother called out to God. Hiding behind a door, one of her sons kept his hand on his heart. The child-maid looked frightened.
The end was swift.
Later, the mother cooked Kaleji, a dish made of the goat’s liver. Served hot, it was garnished with green chillies.
The holy dish
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I saw a shot by Reuters of a camel two days ago. Happy Eid to you too.
Eeekkssss… Sacrifice of innocent animals for the religious rituals is cruel and barbaric … grossed me out … What is wrong is wrong, and not be sanctioned in the garb of religion. If religion means cruelty, then time to reform the religions, I see earth-polluting Hindu idols being immersed, cruel islamic sacrifices being made… its a shocker to see people still following medieval superstition called religion.
Time to shun religions and liberate humanity from orthodoxy. Good virtues, compassion, kindness, forgiveness, etc can be followed sans superstition called religion.
Come on people make a transition to the 21st century.
We are, we are… but let us enjoy the last few bits of the 20th century while we can 😀
A gory reminder of what is one of the most morally reprehensible episodes ever to have graced a “holy” book. The willingness of Abraham to gut his own kid demonstrates how religious zeal can make people behave like catatonic thralls to their imaginary friends.
Mary had a little lamb! Now she doesnt. Happy Eid
Even though it happens and the reality is there staring us in the face, you could have avoided some of the pics.
that was your daily dose of ‘stark realism’.
Why avoid the reality … by being an Ostrich with the head in sand, does not alter the gory truth … these gory pictures serve a warning to us all …
Talking of cruelty, I am reminded of the over 40/50 frogs that we MBBS undergrads kill, nay sacrifice, at AIIMS in our first year. I gradually became such a sadist that i even volunteered to kill the frogs of my weak hearted female batchmates and even once ‘stunned and pithed’ ( ie killed) a male bull frog while it was in its amplexus ( mating position). The realization of my perverted psychology later disgusted and made me psycho analyze myself.All for the good.
Too much information…
Medical Pvt Ltd …
Students must be assessed on their compassion, empathy and humanistic values before they are allowed to enroll. This was gross violation of MEDICAL ETHICS … wonder if ETHICS COMMITTEE was sleeping or what? Why were such practiced allowed? What were teachers doing? Why was the student not expelled? Why allow butchers to practice as Medical Doctors?
Vishal,
I wish that you could have dispelled your scientific naiveté by googling the relevance of frog dissection at a med school.
Med students sacrifice frogs or for that matter, rats for nerve-muscle phsyiology experiments (frogs make terrific experimental animals ) and animal models for pharmacology( we btest drugs on rats before you buy them from Pfizer,Cipla)
The Ethics committee formulates the guidelines on dissection and research and students (including myself) follow them. Dissection (in rats , in frogs and even in human cadavers ) is completely legal, ethical and moral as long as universal guidelines are followed(which we do)
And by the way butchers too can yearn to be medical graduates !
This is as pre-historic or barbaric as being a non-vegetarian every day of one’s life. Not imagining these scenes before eating meat in a restaurant doesn’t make that any different than this.
And being a vegetarian because of one’s religion rather than an active life-choice, is just as pre-historic.
I love the drama sequence of the photos – that’s life, that’s reality – kiling of each other and being scared by that