The excitement of spotting Ramzan ka chand is my dearest childhood memory.
And be the first one to tell everyone ‘Ramzan Mubarak, Chaand dikh gya’ was an achievement at that age.
All the kids in the house and nearby used to run to open spaces in our ever extending aangans or terraces and scream in excitement, ‘dikh gya, dikh gya’!😁
And we were told to quickly make dua in Arabic, which I never used to remember in excitement. However, seeing elders silently looking at chaand, used to make me realise – oh! Dua bhi to maangni thi🫣
And on returning the gaze from the nearby elder to back to aasman, ‘chand ghayab’!
So, I used to lift my hands and quickly make a dua ‘Ae Allah, bas Ramzan mei bahut mazaa aaye’. It meant iftar to be loaded with mandatory pakoris, fruit chat, chhola chat every day ☺️
The new moon is not more than a fine curved line which is visible for a few minutes.
If we weren’t able to spot the moon ourselves, there used to be a mandatory particular saayeran सायरन (announcement horn) that ‘Moon has been spotted by authorities. They make an official declaration of the beginning of the month of Ramzan from the next day with that saayeran.
It used to be such a looked forward discussion among friends (from all faiths) next day in school about everyone’s experience of spotting Ramzan ka chand the previous evening.
I haven’t spotted Ramzan moon for years now.
Yesterday, while coming back home, it was almost maghrib time and looking at the sky from the car brought back a treasure trove of memories about Ramzan Ka Chand.
I don’t remember when was last I had heard that trademark saayeran!
Sounds, smells, visuals and our skin carry muscle memories of our past.
Hearing azaan in Gurgaon is not even a remote possibility in this age or saayeran for the announcement of Ramzan – still the skies spoke to me the language to my eyes, to my skin and bought a smile to my inner being.
#RamzanMubarak_2024
#RamzanStories
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#MothersDigest
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