The month of fasting is the most important period in the Muslim lunar calendar. Apart from the most sacred night, the Shab-e-Qadr falling in this month, Ramadhan is usually the celebration time throughout the Muslim world. This month shifts the routine schedule in Muslim societies from eating to sleeping and from working to spending.
Unlike Kashmir where Its days are counted with reference to the Idd festival, Ramdhan is a complete brand in the modern Muslim societies where it arrives with its own cuisine, dress, activities and entertainment. Fasting is not a practice that exists only in Islam. Other faiths do have their own systems and mechanisms available with a total or partial fasting schedule as part of it .But fasting in Islam emphasizes purity of the soul with stiff restrictions on the animal instincts that the month imposes on its followers.
Regardless of what other societies do during Ramdhan, Kashmir has a set schedule. It eats well, has requirement of peculiar fruits and dishes, earns handsomely in the last week of month of fasting and contributes generously for the cause of the poor and the under-privileged. It expects the systems including power supplies function well and the demand-supply chain in the market does not get disturbed for any reason. Initially for a few days, the hospitals would witness a lot of influx reporting for treatment during evenings immediately after the fast is broken. Doctors would need to be quite fast in managing this particular load. After all, it is a long day of fasting, nearly 15 hours.
What is more important is that a revived and partly salvaged Srinagar Municipal Corporation must act against profiteering, hoarding and selling of unhygienic and contaminated food stuff. The Ramdhan rush is paving way for marketing of sub-standard materials, part of which, off late, is being ‘imported’ from across the LoC through the barter trade. These are mostly fruit, vegetables or both. It evolves into a crisis in the latter half of the month.
For the entire month, the mosques are filled with faithful and all of a sudden there are no spaces available. In certain cases, the Imams are being paid more wages and for the first and the last time in a year people who have memorized the Quran are in great demand.
This is the only month in which the faithful have been ordained to pay per head towards the poor and needy, especially before the month concludes. But people have been doing a lot of charity which is physically visible in the shape of scores of institutions that take care of the destitute and the underpriveledged. People behind all these initiatives’ spend their days and night away from their homes just to ensure that they make the best of it.
But this time the society should start asking questions, in certain cases uncomfortable ones too. Let the donor know who is seeking help and for what? Let the donor get satisfied that whatever he or she is paying is actually going to be spent honestly? This has become very important in the wake of certain revelations that a lot of black sheep are making the best of it. Last month one orphanage run by an abusive retired cop was closed down. For feeding 23 ‘orphans’ he had employed 35 commission agents who would beg, feed him, his home and themselves.
