During Ramadan, a time of well-being and positive thoughts, my world seems governed by food, sleep and work. As the weeks pass, you start wondering what Ramadan really is all about. It’s not just the eating, though it is an integral part of my fasting day.
Women do not fast when they are menstruating, and returning to fasting has proven difficult. We are supposed to keep those fasts that we missed during Ramadan at any other time that we wish. I usually try to do so in winter — shorter days make for shorter fasts. Fasting after the menstruation period is like starting all over again, so the hunger pangs are at their worst.
I have finally cooked. Mum, you will be proud of me, but credit to you for making the process easy. Chicken curry was the flavour of the day. The chicken was precooked, but the rest I had to prepare from scratch. The joy of cooking can easily be lost on a fasting person: not only was I suffering from hunger, but I also couldn’t taste if I had all the right ingredients and amounts.
I set out full of hope, and much praying was involved. I pulled out the Indian recipe books I had dragged all the way from Durban for such an occasion in the hope that I would learn to cook properly.
First I checked whether I had all ingredients. That done, the easy part began: throwing things into a pot; spices first, with onions. Since the chicken was precooked I figured that I should put in the tomatoes a little early and then add the meat. All was going according to plan, and the smell was enticing my roommates in the Madhouse out of their rooms a little too early for breaking fast.
The tantalising aroma was making it difficult to keep the plane that is my rumbling tummy from taking off. Nothing new there, but not easy when you are fasting, in the kitchen, and only a few afternoon hours are left — the hardest part of the day. The tantalising aroma — well, all foods smell like that by this time of the afternoon — was keeping us all working hard at fasting. I guess this is what those who have no food feel.
My mum’s favourite Ramadan saying comes to mind: ”Your eyes are bigger than your stomach.” I guess that’s true when you’re fasting and anything and everything smells wonderful and you start lusting after the things you usually wouldn’t eat. Every time you make a trip to the shop during Ramadan for bread and milk, you walk out with a trolley full of unnecessary food. The only way to combat this is never to go shopping in the afternoon when the fast has really caught up with you.
The chicken curry was a hit. After we broke fast, I had to just remedy the salt and chilli situation a little, but overall it was the best thing I’ve ever made — maybe because it’s one of the only things I’ve ever made. The Madhouse residents gave it their approval, so that was my main vote of confidence.
Weekends have been packed with visits to family in Johannesburg. These are my happy times. I miss home, so this is home away from home and the fact that all I really do is to help set the table makes it so much easier.
My cousins know how to make iftar, a meal served just after 6pm during Ramadan to break the day’s fast, worthwhile. It is a lively affair. There are, as always, samosas and pies and any other savouries you had wished for and asked them to prepare.
Then there’s the main course: anything from mutton curry and rice to steak, chicken and chips. No need for anything else, except maybe dessert. That too they usually prepare or, if my nephews have their way, I drive them to Milky Lane for ice cream and coffee.
With the taraweeh — special evening prayers where, on each night, one-30th of the Qur’an is recited, so that by the end of the month the entire Qur’an will have been read — shortly after breaking the fast, food is consumed quickly and tummy-aches ensue.
Smoking a hookah has become a favourite pastime among us younger people — that is, smoking tobacco through a single- or multistemmed glass-based water pipe, known as a hookah. Ramadan with family and friends often leads a pipe being fired up. It’s peaceful to relax after a long day of fasting, with a full stomach and indulging in the mint or cinnamon flavours of the smoke.
Eating through the night and fasting in the day is OK if you have company to join you in gorging on food at night. In families there is always a willing partner, someone who will share a packet of chips or pour you glass after glass of Pepsi.
The calmness of the night is also the best time to reflect on the feelings of the day. Hunger makes you think and wonder about those less fortunate than yourself. During Ramadan, Muslims are told to give to charity — referred to as zakah. To give to the poor and the needy is one of the rituals of Ramadan that makes this month more special then any other time of the year. If every single Muslim did so, I have hope that the world could be a better place.
This is the second of a three-week series of three articles on Ramadan. Read the first here and the third here