MustafaDubai wrote:Dubai Knight wrote:MustafaDubai wrote:i think ramamdan just brings out the better in people expecially that month....
Really? Judging by the quality and 'giving' nature of the driving just before Iftar, I might disagree.
Week 3 is always the hardest and tempers can flare.
Knight
hmm explain ur reasoning?? cause i always felt that during ramadan there is always a little voice in your head that tells you, " Its Ramadan make a better choice". what do u think??
Let me summarise Ramadan for you from personal experience:
Week 1 - Everyone is filled with the concept of Ramadan and launches into it with gusto. It is slightly hard and inconvenient not eating and drinking all day, but that is the name of the game so everyone gets on with it. They enjoy the night time activities and meeting up with people they have not seen for a long time, sitting around playing backgammon and smoking shisha. With the change in working hours, its not too bad starting later and finishing earlier.
Week 2 - People are starting to get a little tired, all that staying out late at night is interfering with the having to go to work in the day. You start to realise the reason why the people you have not seen for a while and spend your nights with is because you don't actually like them all that much and conversations become less deep and meaningful. Decisions become harder to make and Iftar now means a sandwich and a coke from the garage rather than dates and water as, and I quote, "Everything tastes good after a day of fasting!" Getting home at Iftar becomes a bit of a priority and you go out less at night.
Week 3 - The novelty has really worn off now. You have bags under your eyes, your mind is completely fuddled, you don't know if its day or night and you really really don't care about work or anything else. All that is on your mind is watching that clock and waiting for the damn sun to go down. You are irritable through calorie defficiency and you don't spend your nights out at all anymore because all those people really irritate you now and you have nothing left to talk about. So you sit in front of the TV watching crap soaps and American series, stuffing junk food in your mouth all night. You sleep fitfully and wake up with a furry coating on your teeth from the crisps you ate at 5.00am. You have the urge to shop at 3.00am in the morning. You drive like a complete moron who thinks he is in an F1 race because your stomach is actually in control.
Week 4 - You see light at the end of the tunnel, you know there is only a few days left to go and you close your eyes and grit your teeth, telling yourself "I can do it, I can do it!" Think of the Eid holiday and the parties you can go to with the other people you really like who you have been deliberately avoiding through Ramadan in case you alienate them with your short temper and whining about being tired and hungry. You hardly turn up at work at all now anyway, so you while away the daylight hours in bed or lounging around on the sofa catching up on the repeats of the crap you watched the week before. You decide to leave all decisions about everything until Ramadan is over and then you can concentrate on the stuff that needs doing. In the meantime, DEWA cuts off your electricity and water, Etisalat cuts the phone and your landlord issues you with an eviction notice because you could not decide to pay the bills. You forgive them, its Ramadan! Its the season for giving and charity..unless you are a landlord or DEWA or Etisalat. But its only a fvew days to go!
When you do get out of the house, its only to show a pale and undernourished face with sunken eyes and hanging jaw at the office, before going home again at 3000kmph, cutting up ambulances and knocking down people on the pedestrian crossing as NOTHING is going to get in the way of your stomach!
And then Eid arrives. You eat too much. You spend the whole time asleep and miss all the parties. And then you are normal again.
Fact: Biologically it is extremely harmful to your health to starve yourself for 12 hours and then binge eat.
Fact: The calorie defficiency it creates have proven symptoms of mood swings, lethargy, indifference and aggression.
Fact: More people are admitted to hospital during Ramadan due to road accidents, collapse and even severe dehydration.
I have no problem with Ramadan, however remember that it is YOUR choice to fast. If you see a non Muslim eating or drinking during daylight hours, you can't get upset. They choose not to fast. In fact, its a test for you. If you can survive the test, then you are demonstrating your faith even more.
Fasting is forced upon us because this is a Muslim country. However 80% of the poulation are Hindu or Christian and do not fast.
Its your choice.
Knight