With holy month of Ramadhan in its last phase the air is already filled with festivities. After a month’s fasting people have now started making preparations for Eid. One could see markets buzzing with life as people are out for shopping. Food delicacies and clothing top the shopping list. The mood is festive and it is well expected to increase as the day comes near.
Celebration is instinctive. Collective celebration is an essential feature of a community. Morally there is nothing wrong in public display of pleasure. However, the way destitute and the needy are ignored on this occasion is sad. People seem busy in making themselves and their families happy; buying them best food, best clothes and best of everything they can, and those who can’t afford even the bare minimum are thrown into oblivion.
In a place like Kashmir, that has seen brutal conflict for more than two decades now, countless people are left to live at the margins. We have widows, half widows and orphans in thousands. And then there are other destitute that are pushed to penury by the circumstances. You see families where food is wasted and then in the neighborhood live people who barely manage meals for the day; the disparity is shameful.
Eid is a collective celebration. It cannot be celebrated selectively. Especially on Eid Ul Fitr payment of fitrah is obligatory for every Muslim that highlights the importance of taking care of poor and needy.
But for reasons we tend to forget those people who have suffered in last two and half decades of conflict and whose sole bread earners were killed or disappeared forcefully. Unfortunately, we busy ourselves in materialistic pursuits to the extent that we forget the bitter realities of life. We forget to see how our neighbours are managing two square meals. Or how those kids whose fathers were consumed by the conflict feel neglected and left out while everybody else is busy with Eid.
It is not only our moral duty but obligation too that we should take care of those who suffered and survived the conflict. In our materialistic endeavours, we tend to forget that those who suffered were no way less blessed then us. It was no way written in their destiny to live on the margins, but circumstances proved fatal. And circumstances could change for any person. But if we remember those who are in pain at the time of festivities then for sure tomorrow we will be remembered too. It is like passing it on. The goodness needs to be spread not retained. So before you spend lavishly this Eid remember those who cannot!
