Ramadan kareem

Today Ramadan started. It’s a month when eating, drinking and smoking are not allowed between dawn and sunset. During Ramadan, Muslims are also expected to put more effort into following the teachings of Islam by refraining from, violence, anger, envy, angry and sarcastic retorts, and gossip. People are meant to try to get along with each other better than they normally might. Purity of both thought and action is important. The act of fasting is said to redirect the heart away from worldly activities, its purpose being to cleanse the inner soul and free it from harm.

How does it affect me? I’m not allowed to eat/drink in the public; even chewing gum may be considered as disrespected behavior. Thus, no coffee in the office anymore. However, food court in the university is open and you can have food there, however you have to be aware whenever you say “oh, I’m so hungry”, or “oh, that pasta was lovely” …. :) Especially since my teammate is fasting, we have to be aware of that and respect her religion and power will. Avinash and me, we came up with couple of code words to use during Ramadan… :) E.g. “I’m so excited” means “I’m so hungry” :)

Am I going to fast? Yes, I’m going to try to do it for couple of days just for pure curiosity and try to understand how fasting people feel. I know it’s not going to be the same because it’s not my religion, and I’m not going to pray and be fully involved in the Ramadan. But since I’m in this country, I want to experience it.

“When if not now, who if not you”