It’s during Eid, bachelors in Doha miss their family and friends the most. And many of them work on festival days to keep the home fires burning. By Umer Nangiana

Together you greet privations, alone you merely survive. Together you live the happy moments, alone you might just observe them. Togetherness is the underlying melody of all that is blissful in life. Eid is once such occasion. It brings people together to celebrate in unison the rewards of their personal sacrifices individually achieved during Ramadan.
For this reason, many head home from wherever they are to join their loved ones. This is what makes Eid a grand celebration.
However, not everyone is fortunate enough. Bashir Ahmed from Kalat district in Balochistan province of Pakistan is one of them. Sitting cross-legged in his makeshift shoe repair shop behind Gulf Cinema, Ahmed keeps turning shoes in hands, mending them with a forlorn expression. And it is the second day of Eid celebrations. Most people around him are still in celebratory mood. He seems to be over with it as if it has never happened.
It is not that the home did not call; he could simply not go. “I cannot bear the expenses it takes to travel back home more than once a year,” Ahmed, the cobbler, told Community. “I had to go home three months before Eid for some reason, so on Eid I had no choice but to stay here,” he added.  
It is not the first time in his life that he had to make the compromise. On most Eid during his 15 year-long stay in Qatar, Ahmed had to disappoint his wife, children and elderly mother waiting for him despite knowing that he was not coming. For him, it has become a kind of business-as-usual now.
For Ahmed, and many others like him who choose to become expatriates, restraining themselves from returning home is the hardest yet a necessary choice to make. They understand and find consolation in the fact that in the end it is for the greater good of their loved ones.
Ahmed, for instance, has nine mouths to feed back home in Kalat besides taking care of his extended family. So every day counts. What if it is the Eid day? If the sole purpose of braving the pain of staying away from home is earning enough money, why waste time?
On the Eid day, he had to stay at his bachelor quarters. There were no customers. All day he stayed indoors, simply sleeping the entire day off after offering Eid prayers early in the morning. There was no one to hang out with either.
Back home, it would have been different. No matter how good or bad your circumstances are, Eid simply makes you forget everything else and embrace your family and friends in festivities.
You can find enjoyment in every little activity performed together, even in gup shup (chat) with friends. An expatriate like Ahmed misses out on it. But then, his family’s present and future depends on him staying and working. Their tomorrow is far more important for him that his own today. So on the very second day of Eid, he lifted the shutter on his small cobbler’s shop open.
“I have to save money for my eldest daughter’s upcoming wedding. You know, weddings are expensive business in Pakistan, takes a lot of money. So I am trying to save as much as possible within a short time,” said Ahmed. And this was for the wedding of the first of his five daughters and two sons.  
Four of his children go to school while the youngest is six-month-old. Ahmed had to shoulder responsibilities very early in life. His father passed away when he was only 14. Being the eldest son in the family, he had to take the responsibility of keeping the home fires burning.
He quit school and found work to support his family. He barely managed. He had four sisters and a younger brother. “Doha has given me a lot. I came here 15 years ago. An uncle of mine was here in Qatar and he arranged for my visa a few years after my father’s death. My earnings improved a big way and I managed to save a lot of money here,” said Ahmed.
During the years working in Doha, he managed to build his own house back in his village. He also accomplished the biggest responsibility of marrying all his four sisters away and helping his brother find his feet in life.  
“It was a huge responsibility and I was alone. My brother was in no position to support me when our father died,” said Ahmed. “We did not have a proper house. It was a just a shelter, a mud house. By the grace of God, I have been able to achieve a lot (from earnings in Doha),” said the cobbler. So staying back and earning some money has been crucial for Ahmed, Eid can wait, he says.
“Hopefully, I will save up enough money and will try to go next year. I missed my family this Eid initially but then I got over it quickly,” said Ahmed.
And he was not the only one facing this situation. Muhammad Irfan, a watchmaker, sitting a few yards from Ahmed on the same street had a similar story to tell. He, however, went out with his Pakistani roommates to Corniche on the Eid day after offering his prayers.
They also ate together yet he missed his family, the home-cooked food, the special Eid dessert besides his friends back home in Jhang district of Punjab province in Pakistan. This was his fourth Eid al-Fitr after coming to Doha and his second away from his family. “For us, there is not much to do here on Eid. In Pakistan, I have friends and I used to hang out a lot with them on such occasions. We used to have fun,” recalled Irfan.
He too could not afford a second time travel back home in a year. Three months ago he had gone home. Irfan manages to save QR1,200-1,400 a month. And it costs QR2,000-3,000 to purchase a return ticket to Pakistan which Irfan said he could afford once a year at best.
“Eid to ghar main hoti hai (Eid is celebrated at home),” said Irfan in Urdu (Pakistan’s national language). “I had a daughter but she passed away. But the children of my brothers and sisters come over to our house on Eid. My friends would come,” he added.
However, having exhausted his quota for the year, Irfan would now head home next year on Eid most probably. In the next shop beside Irfan was Muhammad Ismail. Also from Kalat, Ismail too is a cobbler. Busy mending a leather bag for a couple sitting in a car parked next to his outlet, Ismail said he has spent most Eid festivals in Doha in the similar way.
Resuming work the very next day, the cobbler slept off the Eid day. Earlier, he used to go out to Corniche or visit markets but then it too became monotonous and he lost interest. “In my earlier years, it used to be hard for me to stay away from home. But then, I got used to it. Now it does not bother me that much,” said Ismail. “It has been 15 years. I spent last Eid with family back home but mostly I have spent my Eid here since my arrival in Qatar,” he added.
His reasons for missing his family on Eid were identical to that of Irfan and Ahmed. The money required for the air travel to Pakistan was just too much to afford for him twice a year. This year, he could not time it with Eid. Now, he hopes to go home for Eid al-Adha two months later, if all goes well. Ismail too acknowledges that Eid is festive only if spent with loved ones back home.



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