When hunger becomes suffering

The holy month to observe fasting is also a month full of lessons. It is a month also to recognise the feeling of hunger.

Thousands across the globe fast to control weight, but there are millions who may be struggling to meet their daily nourishment. Quite often most people may not have realised the situation faced by the economically challenged people.

Not far away, as the globe has shrunk into a digital world, we have seen the struggle for food. People in Gaza are fasting even knowing they may not have enough food for iftar to break the fast.

Writing this while waiting for the call of the prayer to break the fast with so many others, the atmosphere changes and it becomes quieter and the air fills with serene voice saying, “God is Great.”

And everyone starts their first meal after sunrise to sunset, with dates, buttermilk and water and whatever is their personal preference. The energy may be low but the joy is tremendous as people sit with their loved ones, friends and colleagues.

Had the pleasure to be part of a team where corporate houses have been distributing iftar kits at labour camps. The gratitude the people had on their faces receiving the kits was not just for the food but for the very fact that they were remembered. They are far away from their family members but life goes on and wherever life has taken them, they observe fasting.

It is a restaurant with variety of food items, and the restaurant owner said, “There are 30 different juices.”

The thought went to people in Palestine - did they have enough clean water to drink?

The struggle we are seeing of a whole community running out of food, of starvation which is completely man-made and cannot be blamed on famine or natural disaster.

But what is on spotlight is the will of the people - to celebrate the spirit of Ramadhan even if there are minimum amenities and are stranded in refugee camps. Lack of decorations and furniture, most importantly food, does not stop them from praying and expressing gratitude.

However, that should not stop the world from thinking of a solution to their problems. World history if full of struggles of power and dominance but resolutions and solutions do come. Just like mathematics, people find solutions.

For now, though, the vision of struggle for food is so strong that when we hold a bread in our hand, the thought that comes is of the parents in Gaza looking for food, kids stretching out their hands and vessels to collect food for their families. The innocence in their eyes has been replaced with the expression of a person whose mind is preoccupied or lost in thoughts.

We are talking about nutritional value of our food intake during iftar, and they are looking for anything to suppress their hunger. The malnutrition level has taken a leap. And one wonders whether diseases like metabolic syndrome exist in a situation like this. But where can one take a walk when it is not safe to walk to collect food. And how can one erase the visual impact of seeing the flour sacks with blood stains? Men, so many of them, left their families telling them that they will collect flour for them and come back only to realise they would never be able to return. And for the ones left behind, how are they even going to express hunger after this?

But people are making a difference, like the Omani teams which reached the people in Gaza and could distribute food. The medical doctor from Oman who took the decision to be with the people who desperately need medical attention.

The will is what we learn about during this month. The will to complete the fast even when the body signals thirst and hunger.

This is a lesson that teaches us what we can achieve when we set our mind such as attaining peace within ourselves and with each other.