Like every year, Ramadan comes with memories flash back into my mind. The holy month is the most wonderful time I spend with my family, friends and relatives every year. Remembering how my mother makes the "Iftar" after returning back from work makes me yearn and tear to those warm days. My sister cutting the onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc, my father bringing the hot fresh "Samoon", the Iraqi bread, and me preparing the daily orange juice, is how we help my mother in making the food ready on time."Allahu Akbar", is on TV announcing it's time to break our fasting. Of course, before everything, we thank God for His blessings and promising Him to fast the next day.
"Bismillah", [means In the Name of God], we utter before the first bite. Yogurt, water, dates, Kabab, rice, bread, olive, juice, salads, chicken, and the daily lintel soup decorate our table.
My father used to ask my sister and me about our school and as every year we tell him "We are doing great!" and we did.
"Alhamdollilah," we usually say after finishing Iftar. We go to the living room, pray and then watch our favorite series and TV shows. But when we had examinations, we had to study instead of watching TV!
Every Ramadhan, we have to invite relatives and friends for Iftar and vise versa. This great month makes all of us full of will and happiness to help others. Once, we had a next-door neighboring family who were not able to buy a piece of bread due to the difficult life many Iraqis went through during the sanctions. I remember my mother decided to cook for them the whole Ramadan.
Carrying the tray, once I went to tell them that we are going to share Iftar with them. "You are so kind and we will never forget this favor," the mother told me while she was wiping her tears from her sad eyes. "We are a family. We should share our food together," I said. Then we joined them and had one of the wonderful times in my life.
When I was in college, I used to go with my friends to have Iftar every Wednesday to a very well-known restaurant in Baghdad, Qasim Abu Al Gus. My favorite part in this was drinking the dark Iraqi tea after finishing eating.
Life was so normal, safe and happy at that time. Although there was an embargo but I remember that Ramadan time was different. People used to deploy in Baghdad after Iftar. Adhamiya, Karrada, Palestine Street, Mansour, Kadhimiya and other neighborhoods were thirsty to have the people irrigate them with love and warmth.
The happy days in Ramadan changed a little bit after I graduated from college. Of course, I have a job now where I spend twelve hours in it everyday. So, normally, I have Iftar in my office instead of my home.
In this office, I have another family whom I share Iftar with. "Time for Iftar," our friendly colleague F. announces every day. We all gather to share the great food our amazing cooks make. Eating, chatting and laughing, we spend our Iftar time and then go back to work. Being among my second family makes life for me a little bit normal in an abnormal time mycountry is going through.
I cannot say I am completely optimistic but I believe that one day, normal Ramadan will be back and we will have normal life, if not for us, maybe for the coming generations.
Ramadan Karim!
