yesterday (friday 18th sept 2009) was alvida jumma (अलविदा जुम्मा).
it is the last friday in the holy month on ramzan.
it is a very special day as it also indicates that Id-ul-fitr (ramzan-id) is around the corner.
on the suggestion of one of my friends, i kept a fast (रोज़ा) from dawn to dusk.
this was my first time ever. to stay over 14 hours without food was going to be quite manageable, but i was not sure about staying thirsty for the same time. it goes against my standard 2-3 liters of water/day.
so i decided to stay in the office the whole day (in air-conditioned environments) so as to prevent loss of water by sweating.
so i had a full stomach of water and a cup of coffee in the morning and that lasted me through the day quite well.
i could observe that life and time seemed to have slowed down. i kept looking at the time more frequently than before.
the breaking of the fast (रोज़ा खोलना) aka Iftaar (इफ्तार) is a pretty process.
we had gone shopping to Md Ali Road, which is a remarkable place most of the year, but during Ramzan, it is just moves up many notches.
if you can stand crowds (mumbai trains its citizens well in this regard), this is a must see. especially on alvida jumma.
i am considering fasting right through ramzan next year. but that's 11 months away.
now i wait for Id.
4 comments:
good for you. i want to try to. just one day, to start with. i dont like connotations so might try it on a random day.
Just coffee and water in the morning? Oh
Of course, I did the same when i tried the fast 10 years back. Ideally for Sehri, they eat a full meal. Which must make it a little easier I suppose.
I could not imagine eating at 5 AM and even more, cooking before that. Without letting my parents know what I was upto. They would've gone Ballistic. :)
kenny - our grandmas used to do a very efficient ekadesi fast every month.
this is just to highlight that fasting is a common thread across religions and cultures.
agree with the random day to start with.
am sure that the days described in islam and hinduism have some scientific basis. the moon is the key in this argument.
v - yup. think it is imp to do it more now in our 30s and later.
all fasting is connected to purging.
and at our ages, purging is vital.
@csm As for scientific basis, this is the one I know-
Lot of non-vegeterians (Hindu) eat no meat/ fish during Shravan month. I read somewhere that Shravan is a breeding season for Fish. And 1 month of being veg can help abundance of fish for rest of the year.
Makes sense.
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