The Mixed
Blessings
By Nilofer Sultana
Rawalpindi, Pakistan
By the grace of almighty
Allah, I have had plenty
of chances of spending
my Ramadans and Eids both in
the USA and Pakistan. The Pakistanis
living in the USA would
bear me out that they show an
unusual fervor and enthusiasm
during Ramadan, the month of
blessings.
The Iftar parties are a frequent
affair. Most of the Pakistanis
who observe fasts in a true Islamic
spirit welcome their friends
to their houses and acquaintances
for sumptuous Iftar dinners.
Mostly the Iftar parties are held
on collective or individual basis
in the mosques where the atmosphere
is charged with feelings
of togetherness, closeness and a
rare bondage of love among the
Muslims. Those away from their
homeland undoubtedly miss their
parents, siblings and friends back
home. But they are definitely not
engulfed in the emptiness of loneliness
when their country men
and women from diverse regions
of Pakistan are around them. After
the Eid congregational prayers
and khutba in the mosque, they
exchange hearty Eid greetings. I
have personally relished the festivities
of chand raat, organized
by the ardent ones in the Pakistani
community. It is exhilarating to
watch women lining up for exotic
henna designs on their hands.
Now coming to the shady side
of the picture, the Ramadan and
Eid scenario in our homeland is
not as rosy and colorful as it used
to be a few years back. One nostalgically
recollects with aching
hearts the days when Ramadan
meant a frequent joyful get-together
for the relatives, when Eid
preparations commenced days in
advance of the occasion. Now the
monster of hyper-inflation has
gobbled up the joyous thrill associated
with Ramadan and Eid.
The lawlessness pervading the atmosphere,
the frequent events of
purse snatching by the motor bike
riders, have made Eid shopping
a nightmarish experience. The
joyful experiences of chand raat
are disappearing like the fading
moonbeams. How can the vermicelli
or ‘sawwayian’ be cooked when sugar is missing from the market like the proverbial teeth of a hen. Still the resilient patients and brave citizens cling to their hopes and try to wreak moments of happiness and blissfulness from Ramadan and Eid. In our faith disappointment is a sin. Pakistanis admittedly are great people. They face crises dauntlessly. They showed their courage during the earthquake of 2005 and the Taliban crisis in Swat. They believe good times follow the bad ones; there is always hope for a better tomorrow and ‘if winter comes, can spring be far behind?’ The Pakistanis living in the USA definitely have prayerful greetings to offer to the people of their homeland.
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