This Ramzan, many with hearts of gold reach out to poor with ration kits

MUMBAI: As the holy month of Ramzan enters the third week, philanthropists, community associations, Sufi shrines and individual good Samaritans have come forward to bail out the poor with packets of ration in the holy month.
Some have decided to go the extra mile in making life a little better in this month when the majority of the members observe fast from dawn to dusk.An example is Razia Chashmawala, co-chairperson, World Memon Organisation (WMO)’s women’s wing (North India chapter). In the last two weeks, she has travelled from her cosy Mumbai Central home to the infrastructure-starved, sprawling slums of Malvani in Malad, Vasai and Nalasopara. Observing fast and putting her own health at risk, Chashmawala spends hours among the disadvantaged women in the slum pockets of the city, distributing ration kits.
“I stopped going for Umrah (a small pilgrimage to Mecca many rich Muslims undertake in the month of Ramzan) and spent money in buying ration and new clothes for the needy women of the slum areas. Unlike many privileged women who spend time at salons and restaurants, I like to listen to the needy and desperately poor,” said Chashmawala at her delightfully done up drawing room.
She recounted meeting a twenty-year-old girl at a slum recently. “Are you a Memon Muslim,” she asked the girl. “I am neither Muslim nor Memon. I am hungry,” replied the girl. “It struck me. The reply left me speechless and I kept thinking how disadvantaged youths in our society are becoming bitter,” she said.
At the Anjuman-I-Islam’s Dr Ishaq Jamkhanawala Girls’ High School in Bandra West, noted filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar and ex-minister Baba Siddiqui joined city Congress’s vice-chairman (minority cell) Haji Mudassar Patel to distribute Ramzan ration kits among poor and needy women. This past week he distributed 1,000 ration kits among the needy in a single day, and aims to distribute a total of 10,000 kits by the end of the month. Reacting to appreciation from Bhandarkar and Siddiqui, Patel reportedly told mediapersons: “I have no power to feed anyone. It is God who gives me strength to do this good work. I am just a mere medium because without Allah’s help, we could not have done this service.”
Reaching out to the needy with ration kits are also trustees of the iconic dargahs of Sufi shrines like Haji Ali and Mahim Dargahs. This past week, Suhail Khandwani, managing trustee of Mahim Dargah and trustee at Haji Ali, visited Haji Ali Dargah in the evening to inspect the free iftar arranged for devotees who visit the shrine and stay back to eat their iftar. Administrative officer at Haji Ali, Mohammed Ahmed Taher, said that more than 1,000 ration packets had been distributed from the Dargah and more will be given as the month progresses. At the Mahim Dargah, around 1,200 ration packets have been distributed and there, too, free iftar is provided to the visitors daily during the holy month. “The two Dargahs have always come forward to help the needy. Ramzan being a holy month is a time to do maximum charity and we are doing our best to reach out to the needy in whatever way we can,” said Khandwani.
Since those who observe fast need to eat nutritious meals in the night to withstand the hunger and thirst in the day, the philanthropists justifiably feel that the poor need to eat one meal properly. Which is why a Ramzan ration kit typically carries rice, flour, ghee, edible oil, sugar, pulses, tea, dates, seviyan or vermicelli.