Under the scorching sun, my wife, our six-year-old son, and I set out on an Eid mission—to find a good mutton biryani. But luck wasn’t on our side. One by one, five of our usual spots had already been sold out, their shutters down by noon. Yet, we didn’t give up. We kept driving, searching for another place. And finally, we found our treasure—a bucket of special mutton biryani.
On the way back, as we stopped at a traffic signal, my son, looking exhausted, sulked, “We wasted a lot of time on mutton biryani today.”
I smiled. “Let me tell you something.”
Before I could continue, he cut in, “Yeah, yeah, I know—you’re going to say ‘patience pays.’”
I laughed. “If you can already guess what’s on my mind, then I might as well stop being your father.”
Then I added, “First of all, time is never wasted. Every experience—good or bad—teaches us something.”
I turned to him. “So tell me, what will you do if you want to eat good biryani?”
“I’ll cook at home,” he said.
“And what if it doesn’t turn out well?”
“Then I’ll order from outside.”
“And what if that biryani isn’t good either?”
“Then I’ll quit,” he shrugged.
I shook my head. “You never quit. Instead, you learn from the best. That way, you won’t have to hunt for biryani—or settle for anything less than the best.”
He looked at me, impressed. My wife looked at me, amused. And I looked at our bucket of biryani, thinking – This better be worth it.
Eid Mubarak