Saturday, September 19, 2009

End of Ramadan Blues.

Hey, everyone.

I was breaking my fast at my cousin's house the other day. We ate a lot of good food. I thought I died and went to heaven.

At one point my cousin was telling my sister and I about the children at the school her family is involved in. I don't know if they started it but that's besides the point. The children at the school come from really really poor families.

There are three siblings who attend that school. The family doesn't have enough to give each of them a lunch everyday. So one child has lunch while the other two go hungry that day. Then they alternate. I'm sure some kids don't even take a lunch at all. These people are usually part of families where the husband is a drunk with no job who sends his kids and wife out to work so they can buy him more alcohol.

That's how my old maid's family was. She had to work to provide the booze. If there was no alcohol in the house, her husband couldn't sleep. If he couldn't sleep no one was allowed to sleep. They hid the fact that they were sent out to work from the rest of their family. Women and children working is a shameful thing in India. It's like saying that the man of the house can't support his own family and he needs help. In this case the man is too busy drinking to care about his family.

Thankfully, India started a Mid-day meal programme where they provide lunch to kids at school. 1/3 of the daily calorie requirement with 1/2 the daily protein requirement. This is for two reasons: one is to feed the kids. Second, is that a free meal encourages parents to send their kids to school. At least they get some sort of education. We take cases in the hospital and I have to say that more than 75% of the patients are illiterate. Maybe a handful got past the tenth grade.

But it just got me thinking...

Ramadan is here to humble ourselves, to get a feel for how the poor feel. Even though I will never really know. I guess the satisfying feeling when you break your fast serves as a reminder that we at least get to eat something. There are many out there who don't know when they will see their next meal. We will never know how the poor feel because we have never starved. Fasting during the day doesn't mean you've starved yourself. Your body isn't feasting on itself. I don't know what starvation feels like. I am blessed.

This makes me feel guilty. Not because I have food. For that I am grateful. But that I haven't done anything to feed a hungry person. I could excuse myself and say, "who has the money?" But really, I could afford to not buy something I want and donate it instead every now and then. That's better than nothing.

Fun fact: Back in the day like centuries ago people were so generous there would be no poor people in need of money. People would donate money to the mosque and the poor who needed it would take it. But there were so many people donating that there was no one to take the money. How cool is that? {Anyways someone with details on this please elaborate in the comments.}

Anyways, I am no Saint and am not trying to be holier-than-thou. I just feel a pang of guilt right now and thought I'd share. There are some sites like http://freerice.com/ and http://freeflour.com/. I wish they wouldn't be so monotonous, though. And I'm not good at geography so I suck at freeflour. lol. If they were more fun maybe all the unsmart people with ADD like me would play more??

Fiance is also a doctor so it's not like I'll have to work. The money I make will be extra so hopefully I'll do something good with it. For now I can't do anything big, but maybe donating some of my allowance every month will add up. Watch me forget all about this in a hour. I suck.

On another note, I didn't take as much advantage of Ramadan as I should have. I pray that I live until the next Ramadan so I can hopefully get a second chance and get the full benefits of this blessed month. Amen. DEAR GOD, I NEED ONE MORE SHOT. Don't let me die for a while.

Anyways, I think I just pooped on the Eid party, huh? I didn't mean for this to sound so solemn. Eid ul-Fitr is tomorrow. It's the celebration at the end of Ramadan. So

Happy Eid, everyone!!

12 comments:

Artistic Logic said...

haapppyyy eid =)

controlled chaos said...

great job jaanu i really liked your post.
::smile smile::

Artistic Logic said...

^ whoa

.:*aMbAr*:. said...

OHH I loved this. I've heard a lot abot the freerice or whatever site, but I've never been there.

Faith said...

I also heard about that time not sure when though, when people lived in so much justice that there was no one in need, but there is a hadeeth about charity that says “there will be a time, right before the doomsday, when a man wants to donate his gold and silver charity; and doesn’t find anyone to accept it”
Which means if you want to give away money, don’t think twice..do it right away before you have lots of money but no body to take it.

Mina said...

Eid Mubarak:)

Farnnay said...

sometimes free rice makes me feel dumb too...lol

eid mubarak yo :)

Amalia said...

I like your post :) - Eid Mubarak!

Anonymous said...

I look forward to reading your guys' Ramadan posts.

I think everyone could stand to have that in their lives once a year.

You could always organize a blog thing- ask people to sign on to drop their pocket change into a jar for a month or two then collect it and donate it to something. Then you'd feel good and spread it around.

My life my story said...

Eid mubarak!

Arabzy said...

Love the post!

Happy Eid =)

Keep it up!

Peace.

fuelMybrain said...

This post made me sad. Your reflections were well written and lol your ADD is funny.