This year, as every year, I took the kids out to buy a couple of goats for Eid. This year, the authorities had designated several areas in the city (Islamabad) where the vendors could "display" their animals. I parked the car and along with the kids, who were very excited, started out to select a couple of goats. There were literally thousands of animals there including hardy, mountain goats, regular goats, "doombas" (a local type of sheep which has a big fat ass) cows, buffalo and even some camels. My kids wanted to get a doomba as they are much meeker than gotas and are fun to play with for a couple of days before we "do the deed".

Each Eid, I am always a little thoughtful about whether it is a good thing for the kids to be involved in this whole process - they select the cutest and nicest goats, play with them and feed them at home for a couple of days..and then are horrfified when they are sacrificed and cry at the loss of their short term pets with whom they have already developed some sort of bond. Still, each year they look forward to the occassion and even though they know what will happen to them they enjoy the whole process.


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Once we found some goats that we liked, we asked the owner how much he wanted to sell them for. Now this is the haggling part and although I don't like to haggle, it's a common practice in Pakistan. I was expecting the price to have gone up a little since the previous year due to all the economic problems and inflation and so on but imagine my surprise when the answer I got was more than DOUBLE the price I had paid last year - "35 thousand rupees" the man said. I snorted and decided to try the usual tactic of walking away in disgust to see if he would call me back with a more reasonable starting point...but NO, there was no "bhai saab, tell me what you want to pay" or "bhai saab, make an offer at least" ! He just ignored me!!

So off we went and found some other goats we liked. Same again...and again and again and again. We had walked several miles by now and were FAR away from the car and still none of these vendors were ready to budge and they were all asking around the same price...12 to 15 THOUSAND RUPEES per goat ! Citing excuses such as the price of diesel and inflation they all expected their goats to sell for these prices. I enquired about a cow and discovered that these were still reasonably priced at between 25 - 30 thousand. Now a cow is the equivalent of 7 goats and I was inclined to purchase one of these but then there were the logistical problems. Goats could easily be put in the back of your jeep or even in the boot of a hatchback if necessary but a cow was a different matter. We'd have to hire a suzuki "dabba" (small truck) and then there would be the issue with finding a skilled butcher to come to the house to slaughter the animal and then there was the issue of managing so much meat before giving it to the poor who would go from door to door collecting what they could of probably the only meat they would eat this year.

It looked like it was going to rain, so I decided to leave...these guys would come to their senses after a night of rain in the open fields with nothing but a small tent and hundreds of animals to ook after. Tomorrow they would be willing to sell at much more reasonable prices. The closer it got to the actual day, the lower the prices would get otherwise they would be stuck with the "regular, non-Eid" prices of around 3 to 4 thousand rupees per animal.

The following day sure enough, after a night of cold rain and thunder, muddy and soaked, cold and wanting to return home to their villages, the vendors were in a more approachable mood and I bought two fairly small goats for Rs.4750 each. Although many buy the largest and most expensive goats available to tie up outside their houses, I prefer to get small goats because the children prefer them to play with and they are quick and easy to handle when it comes to "the deed" whilst also fulfilling the purpose of sacrifice.

Have a great Eid everyone and remember that the sacrifice of animals fulfils a very basic aspect of our faith. The meat is distributed in three parts - one for the family, one for neighbours and relatives and one for the poor. Many of the poor cannot afford to eat meat throughout the year therefore this is a very important occassion for them. Much money is also raised for various charities who take away the "coats" of the animals and  most importantly, you are reminded of the mercy that Allah has showed mankind in every sphere of our existence.