A Belated Eid Mubarak
Ramadan is Khalas (finished).
It's long overdue for me to get down my thoughts on Ramadan and how it went. I managed to fast for every single day during Ramadan without respite and I'm clearly proud of that, although I must say that sleeping til 4pm on weekends made some of the easiest fasting days ever! (Particularly when compared to some of my more religious friends that got up and prayed during prayer times while I snoozed, feel bad about that one, hehe)
So reflecting on whether I hit my goals for Ramadan and what I learnt, here is what Ramadan is about for me:
- Ramadan is about supporting each other, asking about each other's health and fasting process. It's about a community that shifts as one, to a new schedule, a new outlook on life, a new thought process.
- Ramadan is about thinking about the poor and the needy, remembering how they feel not being able to eat during the day, not having ready access to water. Although we drive expensive cars, have huge dinners after sundown with food they can only dream of, maintain our luxurious lifestyles and all the other contradictions, somehow Ramadan at least gives us that window of opportunity from sun-up to sun-down, to remember those people every time our stomach growls or our parched throat hurts.
- Ramadan is about being able to adjust your earthly lifestyle to something different, more important, more spiritual, more conscientious. The spiritual aspect is about sharing with other people, discussions on how things work and the importance of things. It's about conversations with yourself and what you hold as important, what your philosophical outlook on life is, etc.
- Ramadan is about big communal futoors (meal to break the fast at sundown) and ghabges (big buffet at around 11, as a second meal, usually with lashings of rice and fish).
- Ramadan is about keeping your ear finely tuned to that iftar call from the mosque and about keeping the Ramadan calendar on your desktop so you know exactly how much longer you have to fast today and how much longer you have to eat and drink until the first call to prayer.
- Ramadan is about that suhoor with a friend, fuul and hummous and conversations about life at 2-3am (Thanks to Simi, my suhoor buddy for fuul, shisha, life and anything in between :))
- Ramadan is about burgers and shawarmas when you need to a quick feed, omlettes (which you can smell cooking but cannot taste) when you wanna conserve cash and eat at home, big grocery shops with housemates when you're salivating in Jazira supermarket at all of the options
- Ramadan is about the best home-made meals ever at your friend's houses, or when they bring food for you, Bahraini food, Sudanese food, Egyptian food, Bedouin food, any kind of damn food you can get your hands on as long as it's dutifully prepared by a friend, friend's mother, friend's maid, etc. (Thank you so much to Slais, Hamdi, Ali Shaikh and Mariam Kamal for making sure I was well fed and not lonely at iftar).
- Ramadan is about the best smokes and glasses of juice ever, the first smoke and glass of juice after your first meal, thinking about contentedness and the night ahead and the last smoke and glass of juice on our wondrous balcony, gazing out over the street, thinking about ramadan, life, sleep and everything else... and sharing that as a conversation with a friend, roomie and teammate (thanks Jorien!)
- Ramadan is about conversations with your Chinese friend/roommate/intern about Arab culture and life. (Thanks Dingkun!)
- Ramadan is about sleep-working through your day, trying to motivate yourself to get something done while you are tempted by random chats and scrabulous, and sharing that with someone who knows all too well what it's like (Thanks Saba!), while you are tempted by random conversations that flicker and flow from the nothing to the something, but all totally meaningful
- Ramadan is about sharing an office with someone who has experienced the ups + downs of Ramadan for many many years and is part of the very culture you speak of, observing their habits and learning to understand them and to respect them. (Thanks Sahar!)
- Ramadan is about answering questions "Why are you fasting?", "Are you converting to Islam?", "What's Ramadan really like?" and all the questions about Islam and Arab culture that stem from that. Too many people to mention here but I'm sure y'all know who you are, particularly anyone who I said "Read my blog!" to... sorry about that, should've come up with a more personalised reply :P
- Ramadan is about a schedule... about filling yourself to the brim with futoor (not healthy, i Know) but looking forward to that first coffee (best coffee ever) at your favourite places (thanks Veranda, Costa (Adliya + Juffair) and Cinnzeo... and all their staff!) and that conversation you've been needing so badly, about seeing someone's smile on webcam and it making your day.
- Ramadan is about late night msn and google talk chats, whiling away the time towards the end of suhoor, something about those late night chats has a special feeling about them, even if they are totally random or hardcore philosophical/political...
- Ramadan is about reading the ramadan blog on nomadlife and being happy whenever there's a posting so you can share and understand other people's thoughts on the Holy month from whatever background or country they come from/are in (too bad it was not very active this year, gotta lift it for next year guys!)
- Most importantly, Ramadan is about connecting with an incredible culture, a rich history, a psyche, a religion, a global community and a lifestyle that are so finely intertwined it is difficult to separate them almost any of the time. I can't pretend I've gone anywhere close to really understanding Arabs, Islam or the Middle Eastern region properly but I can definitely say Ramadan has helped me a great deal to make headway.
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