ith the holy month of Ramazan upon us, I took the ample amount of free time my university had thankfully provided me with, to reminisce about my previous experiences with this most spiritual of Islamic months.

For as long as I can remember, Ramazan was spent primarily at home, treating myself to my mother’s signature dishes — both for sehri and iftar. While we would occasionally dine out or visit a friend’s or relative’s house for iftar, or host one ourselves, these weren’t usually on the cards. Spending pretty much the entire month at home had become something of a routine, and since this was a way of life for me, I assumed, rather naively, that this was the way of life for everyone.

The year and a half I have spent at the university has introduced me to a number of new things which I was not previously aware of. It has taught me a lot, and spending the month of Ramazan in the varsity hostel has proved to be an added learning experience for me. Not only am I spending my first ever Ramazan away from home, dealing with having to survive without my mother’s scrumptious treats, it has also allowed me to see firsthand the way other people spend this month.

Firstly, the different traditions and cultures inform the way they spend the month of Ramazan. Some of these things come as a sort of a culture shock. The way people from different areas and socio-economic backgrounds fast, is foremost among these.

A couple of days into Ramazan and my social media was bombarded with stories and posts of my friends attending iftar and sehri parties — the likes of which I was also receiving invitations to.

Another thing that I was not expecting was to receive an onslaught of invitations from people to have iftar with them. One segment of these was my hostel friends who wanted a break from the monotonous food at the facility and decided to break their fast at one of the numerous expensive restaurants in Islamabad.

Even more numerous were the invitations (for iftar parties) from my day scholar friends. It seemed it was practically impossible for them to spend even a single day without either hosting or attending an iftar. The same goes for sehri parties, though to a lesser extent. While not a daily occurrence, it is still quite a regular sight to see boarders break the curfew and spend the night out to catch a sehri party at someone’s disposal.

A couple of days into Ramazan and my social media was bombarded with stories and posts of my friends attending iftar and sehri parties — the likes of which I was also receiving invitations to. This is what truly surprised me as these were the very same people who till only some time back would scarcely partake in such activities.

While the trend of iftar parties has existed for a long time, it seems that the past two years of Covid-induced lockdowns have made people go almost overboard with the concept. So deprived have people been of company the last two Ramazans, they now seem to want to make up for all the lost time. With the world finally returning to normal, the trend of sehri and iftar parties seems to be coming back in vogue big-time.

The writer is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering at NUST, Islamabad. He can be reached at araheemabaid@gmail.com