Gulbadan

So, as you with your great observation skills must have noticed, the holy month of Ramazan is drawing to a close. And what an exciting, eventful, exhilirating and joyful ride it has (not) been. Now that it is almost over and done and dusted, I can freely crib about it without causing offence or anything. (Actually, offence will still be caused, as it always is in this great nation of religious intolerance, but who gives a flying french connection anyway.) The point I am trying to make is that for one whole month, the entire nation suspends its activity and gets a ready excuse to be completely and utterly lazy and unproductive. Nothing gets done, and no one is willing to do it. During daytime, people are constantly whining about how tired and hungry they are to get anything done, while during evening-time they are too busy praying and eating to, well, get anything done. :p

Let me back up my ludicrous and outlandish claim of the sheer unproductiveness of this nation by giving an example. This happened when I was making a call to a public sector banking official to set up a meeting for my usual, boring, monotonous, mind-numbing AIESEC work:

Me: Hello, can I talk to Mr. yadayada?
Someone: I'm his personal assistant speaking. He's gone home, why don't you call tomorrow morning?
me: Gone home? Oh. Alright. What time does the office close during Ramazan?
him: Office closes at 2 pm, sir.
me (looking at my clock, which says 1.30 pm): 2 pm? But it's 1.30....why has he left so early?
him: Oh, he usually leaves this at this time.
me: Very well. When does office open in the morning? I'll call early tomorrow.
him: Office opens at 9 am sharp, sir.

So, at 9.30 am, I give them a call again (I give a half hour leeway to make sure the guy is in and well-adjusted)

me: blah blah blah. Can I talk to him?
him: Oh, he usually comes around 10 am sir. Why don't you call then and check?
me: Yeah, sure. Have a nice day.

Moving on. A couple of years ago when I was a slightly more impressionable kid (don't get me wrong, I'm still pretty impressionable), I read in my O'Levels Islamiat book that one of the reasons we fast is to discipline ourselves and deny ourselves the pleasures of worldly life, so that we can observe and experience a more simple, spiritual method of living. While that is all excellent reasoning, it sadly does not apply to the average Pakistani male who first stuffs himself crazy with various assortments of high-cholesterol eatables at sunrise, and then stuffs himself crazy with similar items (with even more cholesterol) at sunset, and spends the entire day thinking about how much he's looking forward to having obscenely tasty food and drink, smoking like a chimney all evening and banging his wife for good measure (or so says my friend, not me). To top it off, he spends Chaand Raat, or the night before Eid, going out, ogling at women, and getting drunk to celebrate the end of the chaste and holy month. Superb.

Anyway, in the spirit of utter randomness, here is a picture of a man sleeping on a rickshaw in front of the Lahore Railway Station.