A different month of Ramzan...

2nd Sep : 4.45 am

It's 4.45 in the morning as i write this.I don't know when will i able to post this though,because i don't have an internet connection right now.I don't usually get up THIS early ofcourse,but i got up at 4 today,because today is different and so will be the coming month ! This is the first time ever I am not at home in Ramzan !Obviously at home i wouldn't have switched on my system at this time,but things are very different here.I don't have anybody to talk to right now,nothing worthwhile to do,some stupid bird is making strange noises outside and actually scaring me a lil.I have just finished my sehri(15 minutes before time!),there's still some time for namaz so I thought it's a good time to get back to my blog which i couldn't pay attention to in the past month.Hold on !!!!! I guess it's time for namaz already now :D,so stay right there...I'll BRB.I am keeping this document open for now.

30 mins later : Yeah I'm back :D.So,where were we and what was I talking about?I think I wanted to talk about my "transition".Just a year back,things were so different.I remember the last ramzan and infact all those 21 ramzans at home.The usual,mom getting up much earlier than us,preparing hot chapatis/parathas and dishes for us.Everybody in the home had a special demand for the sehri and mom like a Genie fulfilled our wishes.We just had to get out of our cozy beds,30 mins before the "Toap"(In Bhopal,at sehri i.e. the "roza beginning" and iftaari i.e. the "roza closing" hours,you can hear loud gunshots in the air and that's how you know when to stop and when to begin eating.That's what unites all the "rozedaars".I'm so used to those "toaps",that for me here in Pune it's impossible to imagine ramzaans without them!Here you just follow a timetable yourself.Nobody's gonna ring a bell and tell you that it's time to start/stop.Ohh how much I miss those toaps;)).

Anyway,so we got up a few minutes before toap and specially in winters I remember,brushing teeth was a burden and then we used to run to the kitchen,get our plates and run back into the blanket :D.Papa always got up the last and one of us(we are there sisters)whoever mom could get hold of or whoever finished her sehri first,had the duty to take the tray to papa's room and run between the kitchen and his room to serve hot chapatis.The last was the "chaai round".I never liked drinking tea in a saucer but we had to hurry anyway so mom used to keep my cup in a small bowl and pour water in the bowl or change 2-3 cups to cool down the tea.Now i realise how demanding i was!That's how the "roza" began each ramzan.

Coming back to the present.I had to get up on my own today,1 hour before the sehri closing time.I bought Hyderabadi biryani last night(because i got late and there were no chapatis available in the market by then!)I had put an alarm in my cell but still I got up atleast thrice to check the time.I don't think I got much of a sleep.When the alarm rang,I was already awake !I ate the biryani somehow :( with the help of the pickle i had bought last night because i knew this was gonna happen.I had to make tea for myself and get up twice in the middle of eating biryani to make sure that it wasnt reduced to half a cup.Sorry to say I couldn't eat even half of the biryani :(,so with no options left i had to eat a banana.I drank my tea and lots of water later!After this i checked my watch and and it was still almost 4.40.I messaged my mom and sisters.Mom replied back with her duas and told me that she had "kaleji"(slurrp) in the sehri,if you don't know what that is,it's a very tasty(and one of my fav) non-veg dishes.Ok,NO talks about good food now :X,the roza has already begun.After this i guess you know what happened.Now it's almost 6:30 and my eyes are half closed.So,I'll switch off the light and the all-out(I am instructed to save as much power as i can here)and get some sleep!I'll pakaofy you with this very soon...Congratulations!You are one of the very few people who managed to read till the end :D.Or did u read the last line directly huh? :O ! Sweet Dreams to me ! Chao !

11:20 pm 10th'Sep'08 : Tell you what though i missed home and Bhopal,it was still a good experience for me ! This one month stay at Pune has helped me grow as an individual...i guess i value people and things even more now :)