Quarantine Reflections: Ramadan and the Pandemic
The blessed month of Ramadan is here. It has something to teach us about the world caught in this pandemic.
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Quarantine Reflections: Hope and Fear
This is my first attempt at maintaining a blog on my website. And what else to start with but COVID-19. Till last week, I felt I will start by talking about my own experience with the virus. But there is better stuff to talk about.
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It’s been 5 years
UPDATE: This year, I’ve shifted the blog to my primary website www.asifkhan.in. You can view the updates under Projects, or simply by clicking here. 5 years is a long time. When I started this blog in 2011, it was out of a sense of loneliness. Living alone in a big city wasn’t the best…
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Nasra
“The journey took 7 days and 7 nights. It was ’79, and traveling by sea was the only way to perform Haj. At that time, the trip used to be three months long, unlike the 40 days it takes now. Which is why we reached in the month of Sha’baan, a few days before Ramadan. We…
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Naba
“It’s really hot over here. I will keep my first roza on returning home from my nani’s place after summer vacations.”
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Ammar
“I started observing fasts this year. It’s my fourth one today.”
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Ibrahim
“It’s all Abba’s fault. He says that I am not old enough, and it isn’t Farz on me yet. When I’m 10 years old, I will keep my first roza.”
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Safina
“Yesterday was the toughest roza. Felt as if all the preceding rozas had added themselves into a single one. No no, not because of the heat. The domestic help went absent.”
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Fakhra
“Ammi called over one of our phuphis. She said, come over, and help me prepare Iftar. Normally, everyone in the mohalla gets invited over to attend Iftar when it is a child’s roza-kushai. But being constantly wound-up was Ammi’s nature — ‘bahut ulajhti theen woh’ — so she couldn’t tolerate too many people around the house for…
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Shahida
Ramadan arrived in a few months on reaching there after our marriage. It was the first time that I was on my own, and it used to be lonely during the day. The wind howled all the time, and I cried remembering everybody who was back home at that time and how it might have been there….