Kuwait a generous land located in the Arabian Peninsula. My motherland is India but I was born and bought up in the sands of Kuwait. We all consider our school as our second home .I from the deepest of my heart would consider Kuwait as my second mother land. So I have a special affinity towards this land and its Ramadan celebrations.

Recently my final exams are over. I am in seventh heaven. I have been doing a few things like drawing, painting, playing the piano etc. One day I felt bored, I wanted to do well nothing, as I was staring at the walls and windows, I decided why not take a trip down memory lane.

As I was searching and enjoying myself at memory lane, I thought what memories I should look into, are there any memories I haven’t looked into for a long time. As I was walking I looked into many memories, some good, some bad then I remembered what about ‘My First Ramadan” because Ramadan is coming soon in Kuwait.

It was Wednesday, May 16, 2018. It was the first day of Ramadan. Our school closed at 12:00 pm. I packed my bag and was ready to go. It had been a long day. On the bus ride I wondered what people do during Ramadan. Well it’s almost time to find out.

Next morning I got up and went to school, on the bus trip I decided to ask Aamina, one of my best friends in school about Ramadan, she is celebrating this festival. Once I reached class, there she was, Aamina, I went up to her and asked, ‘Hi Aamina could you tell me more about Ramadan. I know people do fasting but what else do you during this time.’ What is the importance of this month?

She said to me that Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, Muslims refrain from food and drink; they do prayer and recitation of the Quran.

She wanted me to join her during Eid al fitr. I was eagerly waiting for that day. It was on a Friday, June 15, while I was in the car, Aamina told me about a few more things suhur, iftar and the spiritual rewards. When I entered her home Aamina showed me her room and a few plans on that day, she wanted me to help her. So I did a few things, Aamina took an old tang powder box it was empty, she cut paper, it as small as a centimetre rope. She wrote the word ‘ZAKAT’ on it. She said ‘ZAKAT means giving something important for us to poor people during the holy month. It’s tradition to give money... I said to me ‘wow, it indeed is a great tradition .During the time of happiness we should think about the people who suffer and need some help from us. After hearing this wonderful tradition my mind was so happy. After that me, Aamina and her brothers went out to neighbourhood and gave some money and food prepared by her mother to the needy people. Putting a smile on someone’s face is a great thing to do.

We decided to wear traditional dresses to receive sweets and nuts from Aamina’s neighbours.

When we returned back there was a feast of dates, fish stew, Berber bread, soup, pomegranate, biryani, sweets, chapathy, my favourite busbusa and a few stews, I mean a lot of stews. We altogether enjoyed the food. During that time also my mind was about the beautiful Zakat tradition.

Finally when I went to the wash room to freshen up, all of a sudden on the window I saw people walking on the road cheerfully with, Lanterns and tied them to their rooftops. I came back and told about all I saw. Aamina told me it was another tradition believed to have originated during the Fatimid Caliphate, where the rule of Caliph al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah was acclaimed by people holding lanterns. We made our own lanterns, went outside and flew them away. It was beautiful. We took a few photos of us and the lanterns.

So it was an amazing adventure, totally unexpected, I had a great time. I was able to meet my closest friend and learned something new, now what other memories should I look into oh wait I totally forgot, that if I go any further I would sink into a deep sleep. Time to go, so I decided to write all of this down, so I exit my dimension and that’s it. I wrote it all down. See you next time paper. Bye, Bye.

Ameya Hari Bhaskaran, V-J, IES-Bhavsns