A Day of Fasting, Traffic Trials, and Taraweeh Prayers. Ramadan day 7.

As it is Ramadan going on all over the world, Muslims from all corners of the world rise early in the morning to have the pre-dawn meal, and so did I. I got up at around 5 AM and first freshened up and performed ablution to be ready for the morning prayers. Only after finishing Sehri, which is an essential part of fasting, I waited for the morning prayers to begin and was quick to reach the mosque. I joined other members of the community for the morning prayers there. It was quite a peaceful hour that I spent in the mosque, and it is actually the time which brings positivity to me and helps strengthen my bond with the Divine.

Upon returning from the mosque, I went back to take some more rest. It was 9 AM when I woke up again. Now it was time to get ready for the office. I left quickly, and as I am still deputed in the office where I have been working for the last six months, I opted for a shortcut route towards the office, which is helpful in saving both fuel and time. It took me only 20–25 minutes to reach there. These days we do not have much work because we have already completed the special task that needed to be finished by the 15th of this month, and now I am waiting for the officials to relieve me and send me back to my parent department to which I belong.

In the afternoon, I returned home and offered the Zuhr prayers. Later, I met my friend at the mosque, and we sat together for some time. We then decided to leave for Srinagar. I rolled my car out of the backyard, and we started our journey. While driving through the town of Chadoora, we got stuck in a traffic jam because a bridge there has been declared unfit for transport use. As the traffic now moves through an alternate route, there is not enough space for two-lane movement, creating a bottleneck and causing inconvenience to the people.

As we continued towards Srinagar, heavy traffic could be seen on the roads, but we managed to reach the city and offered the Asr prayers. After that, we did some shopping for a while and then decided to return home as it was time to break the fast. Unfortunately, we could not reach home in time and were still near the town of Charar, about 10 km from our place. We broke our fast in the car while driving back. Thankfully, we received enough eatables from people who were distributing food along the road from Srinagar to Chadoora.

Although we had already broken our fast, we stopped for some barbecue in the town before heading home. I reached home at around 7:40 PM. Soon it was time for the special Taraweeh prayers. I performed ablution and went to the mosque. After spending about an hour there, I returned home and, after having a cup of tea i went to my room.

Before I could go to bed, my mother offered me the items they had set aside for me for breaking the fast. As I was not home at that time, she had kept my share separately and served it to me later, and I had it all before going to sleep.