💬 Got added to a WhatsApp group of Deccani families in Chicago, small thing but it made my year

A lady from our building added me to a WhatsApp group of Deccani families here in Chicago. Pure luck. I'd gone on about biryani at a friend's dinner and she decided I belonged in there. That was 4 months ago. I thought I'd mute it in a week like every other group on my phone. Didn't happen. It's become one of the few things here I look forward to without any reason. Mostly it's food. People post what they've cooked and who wants some, and you just go pick it up. One week it's somebody's khichdi, another week a family makes proper haleem and 30 people want a box. You can't get that here. There's 2 restaurants that try, and they try hard, but no. I've eaten better in a stranger's parking lot in Naperville than in any restaurant in this city. We've had 3 meetups now. One was tea at someone's house, one was a picnic in a park near Devon Avenue. I thought maybe 5 families would come to the picnic. 15 showed up and somebody brought a full pot of biryani. The thing that got me was hearing the accent again. That Deccani way of talking, the jokes nobody has to explain. Didn't know I missed it till I was laughing at a joke I could never explain to anyone at work. It's not a big deal, I know. A group chat with food photos and plans for the next get together. But after 6 years here it's the first time Chicago has felt like somewhere I live, not just where my job is. Anyway. If anyone here is in the Chicago area and from back home, message me and I'll get you added. Fair warning though, on Eid it's easily 200 messages a day and half of them are voice notes.

The jokes nobody has to explain. That's what I miss most, and I didn't notice till it was gone. At work here I say something funny and get polite smiles. Say it to my cousin on a call and he's gone. Good that it found you by luck. The best people I've met abroad came the same way, nobody planned it. Not one of them came from those official community events, not one.

Same in Dallas. I mentioned biryani at a work event and the next day I'm in a group of 90 people. It's always the biryani that gets you in, whatever city you're in. Stayed for the food though. Found real haleem through ours last Ramadan, first in 4 years here. Paid a lady in Irving 25 dollars a box and I'd pay double next time.