Ruet-e-Hilal

Urgh! Why must old fogeys decide when Eid is going to fall every year? My father says that there are old fogey meetings on every level, from district to provincial to national. They all gather every month and, I assume, strain their rheumatic necks and cataract-clouded eyes in search of the thin sliver of the new moon. Small wonder that almost every year they emerge from their late night meetings and shake their heads at us. Not tomorrow, the day after.

The strain on one such fogey was clearly visible today when he spoke to the media briefly, and that too only to rail against the ungrateful public which only gives a flying **** about it once a year. He yelled angrily that for the remaining months of the year, no one cared about their verdicts. Well, of course, old man. We do live in the twenty-first century and follow the solar calendar on a day to day basis. Ever heard about that? Unlike this antiquated system, the solar calendar is laid out years in advance and does not need grandpas to figure out when one month begins and another ends.

Which brings me to my main point. Why can't we just tell the Met to figure out the lunar calendar for us? Tell it to do some math and figure out when the first day of each lunar month should be. It would give us all the opportunity to plan our lives a little better. I for one would not have to sit grumpily before the television waiting for this committee to make up its mind.

It is a doomed suggestion , I know. It would send all the puritans – which nowadays includes just about everyone in this country – up in arms. Breaking from tradition, unislamic, heresy. I can here all the politicians and pundits denouncing it on national television. Fine, I shall let these fellows on these committees have their moment of glory. Whatever.