DUBAI // Ramadan takes Indian author Shemi back to the difficult years when she and her family lived on the streets in a southern Indian city, working odd jobs to survive.
Shemi survived on meagre food handouts instead of wages when as a young child she scrubbed floors and washed dishes in restaurants and homes.
“My hunger would be unbearable,” she says. “One day during Ramadan when the scraps of food were not enough, I searched for recyclable items on the street so I could hand this over to get some fils from the recycling shop.
“I bought three dates and a handful of peanuts with the money.”
Shemi remembers clutching her small portion of dates and peanuts while the aroma of fried fish and simmering mutton stew filled the air for lavish iftars being prepared.
“Waiting for the azaan with dates in my hand and an empty stomach was agonising. But finally when the azaan started and the sound filled the area, it was the most pure, enchanting sound.”
For the Dubai author, who is now working on her second novel, Ramadan also brings back memories of hope and the promise of better times.
Her debut Malayalam-language semi-autobiographical novel Nadavazhiyile Nerukal (The Truth in my Path) tells of the years she spent on the streets of Kannur town after the death of her parents until an orphanage gave her refuge.
Like much about her life, Ramadan stirs up strong emotions and intense recollections. Holding on to her dream that education was the key to improving her life, she went on to study in a government school and college and became a nurse.
Marriage brought Shemi to Dubai in 2005 where she now lives with her husband, Fazlu Rahman, and young daughters Ishaa and Eva.
The spirit of giving in the UAE never fails to lift her spirits.
“Less privileged people get good food during this month,” she says.
“The UAE Government and voluntary organisations start charity campaigns and this benefits so many people, especially those who stay in the labour camps.
“As someone who has felt the worst stages of hunger, I feel happy to hear about these initiatives.”
Shemi also ensures she gives back because she can never forget sleeping in a sack on the pavement, always watchful for child predators.
As a message to children that there is a way out of poverty, she released the second edition of her novel in an orphanage Kottayam town in Kerala state.
Her husband says that when the family travels to India, their first stop is orphanages before visiting relatives.
“We take cartons filled with clothes, shoes, water bottles, toys for children,” he says.
“We go to a remote village that Shemi chooses. Only when everything has been given away do we go home.
“Shemi says the children in orphanages and on the street are her family. She understands what it is to be a child alone.”
Royalties from her first book are set aside for abandoned children in India.
“God has blessed me with the wealth of experience – good, bad and some terrible. I faced hardship but life has given me opportunity too.
“The royalty is a small amount, but I always remember a quote by Prophet Mohammed: ‘A hand that gives is better than the hand that takes’.
“Ramadan is clouded with memories for me but when you start paying society back, you feel relieved of the burden of debt that you were carrying on your shoulders.”
rtalwar@thenational.ae
