Whenever you turn TV on during Ramadan you are greeted (on non-News channels) either with some kind of cooking show or an ad of some Ghee/Cooking oil showing a never-ending Iftar table graced with all kind of smoking hot food. And it dates back to the days when we all watched PTV and remained in sync with every drama serial or even new ads.
Also, it has become kind of ritual to expect food prices shoot up during this holy month when food should, technically, be least of the worries. You probably might have heard of this before but isn't the purpose of Ramadan to free us of 11 months of gluttony? The very reason behind the surge in food prices is that we all in our wildest dreams dream of that never-ending Iftar table in our own dinning room. Then, the whole nation, starts working "hard" to make those dreams come true. We want to eat the stuff we hardly ever eat during rest of the year. Instead of stop worrying about our meals, we actually stop worrying about everything else but this. Iftar preparations start from middle of the day. This act does not escape the reality of us being a twisted, hypocritical nation.
Last evening my neighbor asked me how I prepare my Iftar. And I replied there's nothing to prepare. Stunned, he asked what I eat and upon finding that he thought for a moment and asked "why don't you come to my house for Iftar? There would be many kinds of stuff." Long story short, it took him some time to grasp that Iftar could be something little worried about to.
I come from a family where food is just 15 minutes in the morning and in the evening. Even in our extended family it is considered 'shameless' to spend considerable money on food. Whenever I watched those ads on TV and asked my mom to cook those "kind of things", I got a good stare. Those kind of things were meant for guests only.
I wish if there is a God, He would come down and give us a good stare and say, "What the fuck do you think you are doing? This month wasn't meant to be like this!"
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