•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   

It’s the Ramadan month of fasting for Muslims so, being one by accident of birth, I thought I’d be a sport and get into the spirit of self-denial and abstention from food for a bit.

I didn’t think it would be a big deal as gluttony has never been one of my deadly sins.

If anything, I perform best when I skip breakfast, I view lunch as an inconvenience unless it’s work related and often find dinner an angst-ridden exercise in decision making about what to eat and where to go in a city congested with traffic.

Hence, foregoing all association with anything prandial for the whole day is actually quite a welcome thought.

Besides, it’s a good opportunity to do a much-needed detox program and get my health in balance.

Fasting is supposedly beneficial as it gives the body a break from the business of digesting and absorbing food, letting the system focus on repairing and renewing itself.

Ramadan is also the time to cleanse the mind of impure and naughty thoughts. The government, however, is not helping.

Our enlightened minister of information has gone on a crusade, blocking porn sites in honor of the holy month.

What he’s succeeded in doing is making Twitter chock-full of references to porn. Millions of porn sites are being blocked, he claims. Millions? Really? I didn’t even know there were that many.

Now, a really good way to make people think of elephants is to tell them not to think of elephants, so it was pretty tough for me, who spends a good part of my day online, to resist the temptation to prove the claim that you can no longer access lurid sites.

Fortunately, my morality is upstanding, and I’m quite happy to take the minister at his word and trust that he has personally checked all the porn sites himself to make sure they are suitably blocked.

Overall, the real challenge of fasting is not so much the skipping of food as having to get up well before the crack of dawn to have your last meal before beginning your fast.

Being forced to wake up at 3 a.m. when your brain is still in the land of Nod, and then having to gobble down food while your eyelids are still stuck together is pure torture.

I would gladly sleep the night through and fast without the predawn meal.

But that is supposed to be part and parcel of the fasting experience and a form of self-discipline.

Also, while fasting one is supposed to go about one’s daily business normally and not use hunger as an excuse to sleep in or laze around while waiting for twilight to descend. This is tough.

Getting up in the morning after a brief sleep is painful.

So far I’ve been late for a morning meeting at my office and my contribution to the discussion has been an endless number of yawns and barely eligible grunts.

Moreover, if you’re the type of person who gets in a rotten mood when hungry, like yours truly, then your moral fortitude is really being tested.

It’s not that easy being patient, understanding and full of positive thoughts for all mankind when all you can think of is satisfying the gnawing craving in your stomach.

But fasting is not all about cleansing the body, it is also about cleansing the spirit.

It is said that the more stoic you are in the face of challenges during your fast, the more brownie points you earn in the eyes of God.

Best to cultivate a beatific smile through the hunger pangs and the parched throat and be grateful that wearing a horsehair shirt is not part of the criteria for self-denial.

Nevertheless, around three or four o’clock in the afternoon, when I’m slumped in my chair with all energy drained, the feeling of virtuousness turns inexorably to thoughts of breakfast in its literal sense.

The fun thing about the fasting month, of course, is the breaking of the fast.

Yes, fasting is supposed to teach you about compassion for those who are less fortunate and have little in life.

But the fact is, people spend a lot more on food during the fasting month than at any other time of the year.

This is also the time when people eat richer and more expensive food with prices that are around 20 percent higher than normal.

Not only that, the fast-breaking becomes the main agenda for the month, around which all other activities are tailored.

For me, this is definitely the time when I find myself eating stuff that I wouldn’t normally eat — the sweet, sticky and multicolored puddings and desserts that make my teeth ache — and indulging in fancy meals.

The first day of the fast had me gorging on a smorgasbord of delicious food for the better part of the evening and going to bed with heartburn.

So much for self-denial and temperance.

However, fasting also teaches me to appreciate a meal in the way that it’s supposed to be enjoyed: as a celebration to look forward to in the company of others.

And when you’re really hungry.
 

Desi Anwar is a senior anchor and writer. She can be contacted at www.desianwar.com and www.dailyavocado.net.