Today is day 23 of Ramadhan, so in 7 days or less, Muslims all around the world will be rejoicing and celebrating the new moon of Syawal, the month of victory. This new month is much anticipated after a hardship of enduring hunger and thirst while fasting, and restraining oneself from doing things that can
batal your puasa. Do I need to elaborate on things that can make your puasa batal ? Don't have lehhhh....OK
Ramadhan is a blessed month, it is said to be the month of
maghfirah - forgiveness from Allah from all of your past sins. And theoretically, Muslims are supposed to do lots of
amal ibadah in order to get the divine forgiveness from Allah. And so, there's a frenzy among good Muslims to double up their solat or prayers instead of dancing ther butts off at the clubs, more Quran recitals instead of listening to Justin Biebers saying '
I would never say neverrrrrr!' (itu example lah ye!) and lots and lots of derma, or donations to the poors.
A Muslimah reciting Quran at Blue Mosque, Turkey
Women performing solat at Prospect Park, Brooklyn New York
Muslims performing solat at Guantanamo Bay Prison.
All photo credits belong to: http://islamicsunrays.com
Those are the good kind of frenzy.
There's another kind of frenzy, the one that are happening to a vast majority of Malaysian Muslims especially.
The first frenzy of this kind, began on the very first day of Ramadhan.
It is called the PaRam frenzy. PaRam, as in Pasar Ramadhan, or Ramadhan Bazaar, Ramadhan market. It is where people flocked to that makeshift markets for some kuihs, or lauk buka puasa or simply cuci mata. And there's a wide array of foods displayed, enough to make you gone crazy, especially since you are hungry and thirsty, from fasting that everything at PaRam looks delicious and you must buy simply EVERYTHING!!!!!
There are that must have onde-onde or buah melaka, that exotic kuih tahi itik, that gangster kuih lompat tikam, that delightful bubur kacang, plain old karipap or ts upgraded sister, the karipap pusing, the thirst quencher and colourful puddings and so on and so forth.
And there are to die for murtabaks, laksa Penang, Mi Kari, mi sup, mi goreng, char koay teow, nai beriani, nasi ayam, sate, ayam pusing, kepak ayam madu et cetera et cetera.
And the lauk to accompany the nasi! There are ayam masak merah, ikan bakar, terung goreng berlada, patin masak tempoyak, rendang daging, kurma daging, phewwwwww...I am salivating simply by reciting the lists!
Suffice to say, Pasar Ramadhan is a mini food carnival, and it is really some serious gastronomic affair. It's not a place to be if you are watching your weight, and it can also incur some serious damage on your wallet content. Yours truly, for instance, spent RM60 alone on day 1 of Ramadhan at PaRam. And I only stopped from buying more food because I hot my hands already full with countless plastic bags, on both hands! Sigh...
PaRam has its ups and downs graph. The highest turnover is on the first and the last day of Ramadhan, and people can be really frantic in buying foods in these two days. And normally, week one will record a high turnover when reckless, lazy and kaki makan people (read : moi, yours truly, me!) will frantically buy foods and keep on alternating between stores and buying different variety of foods (read: found out that the foods that I had bought are not tasty at all, so had to switch to other makcik!).
After week one is over, the PaRam fever cooled down a little (read: this normally happen after one week of moaning and cursing the makciks for selling foods that are not tasty at all, harap nampak jer cantik tapi rasa yuckkyyyyy!).
And then, enter phase two of Ramadhan fever. Once the PaRam fever subsides, there's another frenzy that will fill its void. This is the COOKING frenzy phase. This is when you are done with all the moanings and cursings of irresponsible PaRam food sellers for selling foods that are not up to your standards, and TING! there's a light bulb lighting up your mind, and you started to think that Hey! I can cook like that also lehhh!!!!!
And so it began. All that energies, all that hours spent in the kitchen cooking whatever it is that came into mind. Nasi biryani, nasi ayam, laksa Penang, fried noodle, soup noodle, onde-onde,ikan bakar, honey roasted chicken, kurma daging, rendang ayam etc etc etc and the list goes on.
This phase is also short lived. It will normally have a life span of one week, or two the most. Reason for dying : aiyyahhhhh...so susah la to cook and then had to clean up some more (read : masak sendiri pun tak sedap jugak!!!!)
Right after the cooking disaster frenzy, errr whoops, did I say cooking disaster ? I meant to say Cooking Frenzy phase is over, there's a shopping raya frenzy. Now this is the phase when people would think about what colour theme is it going to be for their baju raya attire....
Let's see, last year it was lavender theme, when all the baju, handbag and shoes were perfectly matched in lavender hues that I resembled a walking lavender farm, so this year is a close contest between turquoise, or perhaps that rare dog's poop gray (kelabu tah* anjing lerrr) theme ? Hmmmmm dilemma dilemma....
And what about handbags ? Prada or Gucci ? But Coach is the IN thing now. And how about LV ? Aiyyohhhh cannot la. The other day I saw a makcik selling kuihs at PaRam also wear Louis Vuitton handbag ! Gaaaa!!!!!!
Huh. And what about shoes ? That Jimmy Choo's stiletto is to die for, but how to wear stiletto when I had to carry a chubby 1 year old in my arms ? Huh dilemma dilemma..... (yeah like I wear Prada or Gucci of LV or JC hahaha)
And the tudung selections to choose from...there's Aryani, Yuna, Syrian, Bawal etc etc...huh buat I confuse saja...and the kedai emas....ahhhhhhh the kedai emas.......
Oh yes. At day 23 of Ramadhan, we are seriously entering the RAYA frenzy. You know it when radio stations and shopping complexes play the raya songs non stop, and serious shoppers flock the infamous Jalan TAR in Kuala Lumpur, causing a frenzy on the road.
Ah yes, the frenzy. This is a sign for me to stop writing for this entry, because I would also want to join the ultimate shop til you drop shopping frenzy!
Tata all, me heading for some serious marathon in a short while! (Yeah rite, says my hubby, always the party pooper)...sigh....
