Day 4 - Ramadan-ing

Day 4 fell onto a Saturday and it’s so much harder to update when I’m home.  Not because I don’t want to be because I don’t have a minute to myself.   Let me backtrack for a quick minute.

I went to have iftar with my mom in B’more on Friday night right after work and naturally a few fam showed up.  Fighting traffic was not fun but nothing could bring me down when faced with the wonderful prospect of breaking fast eating my mother’s yummy homemade iftar.   And she never ever disappoints.  The amount of food she prepared was mind-boggling but this is nothing new.  Anyone who knows my mother could attest to the fact that is an amazing cook who also overdoes it all the time.  Again, not complaining.

That evening, after iftar, between Maghrib and Isha prayer, we sat around the table, my aunt, uncle, 3 cousins, mom and brother.  Everyone was idly nibbling on this or that, full but unwilling to get up and start the cleanup process.  Tea had been made and was also being sipped giving the fast breakers a welcome kick of caffeine that had otherwise been missing all day long. 

My little blogger mind was working overtime at that point as I made note of everything that everyone did, said.  I was somehow, and I admit I was doing this unconsciously, indexing it all away to retell here but even that wasn’t enough for me.  So as I sat there sipping on mango juice, I asked my family to indulge me in a request.  It was that all would share their favorite Ramadan related story.  At first everyone seemed a little skeptical but within a few seconds tongues loosened up and where I thought nothing would progress beyond a few words, those sitting at the table started to spill.  There we were, smiling, reminiscing and laughing (a lot) as all regaled.  Am I going to go through and narrate all those stories again?  No, not now at least but eventually yes.  There is, after all, plenty of time.     

That evening I came home at 2am and on Saturday I woke up with a mild sense of panic.  There was so much to do in anticipation of the Iftar party P and I would be hosting next weekend.  Between work and fasting, time and energy are both severely lacking throughout the span of the weekday which is why for me the weekends are so important.  This weekend no less and I had a mountain of work to get done.  Leaving P to do whatever it was that he did, I jetted off to run a boat load of errands all the while making lists in my head. 

So why am I nuts enough to have a party during this month specifically, particularly when I can’t taste anything because I will also be fasting the whole time and I’m not making just one meal but in fact two (Iftar plus dinner).  I suppose it is a bit loco and seems daunting, right?  It is.  But let me also assure you that it is so worth it.   Actually I admit I’m a bit selfish also, a lot selfish if I have to be honest.  One garners super-duper mucho mondo blessings from God if they feed a faster.  Oh yea, like you’re golden and God’s pretty darn pleased.  So each Ramadan I’m all about scraping together all the brownie points that I can regardless of how physically taxing it may be.  There is also the minor added bonus of having those I adore over to my place so I can feed them, Ramadan or not.  : )

Anyhow, there are a lot of small things that I can get done, as well as preparing a few dishes ahead of time and freeze.  These are strictly those items which will be fried on the day of and served piping hot.  Spending a whole day on my feet making samosa’s from scratch wasn’t fun but the payoff will hopefully be worth it with ‘yums’, ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ of appreciation.  By Magrib off we went to enjoy iftar with our dear friends N and A, who had invited us over (also wracking themselves up some dua), after which we returned home only to discover that there was no electricity in my neighborhood.  Let me tell you how weird this is when one considers that throughout all sorts of crazy weather from howling storms to piled up snow, we have never ever lost power but all of the sudden, some random evening when nothing was happening outside, not even the whisper of wind, poof the world goes dark.  So strange.

I didn’t even have the energy to get worked up over this.  May be I was secretly happy since I had planned to come home to do some more work but since there was no light I couldn’t carry out my intended plans.  Oh well.  Lighting a candle I curled up by it and read until I drifted off to sleep.