Thu 4 Nov

During the third week of this holy month of Ramadan the students have begun to drift away. By Thursday it is official, this is to be the last day of lessons until the Saturday after Eid. Yippee! No classes for two weeks; where shall we go?

The forth week of Ramadan followed by the three or four days of Eid are considered in the workplace much the same as the west considers Christmas and New Year; it is a time of feasting and visiting relatives. People travel to their ancestral villages; they pay their respects to honoured, aging, sometimes obscure relatives. Office workers let in-trays pile up. No one wants to arrange meetings, or start anything new. "Let's leave it till after Eid" is commonly heard. The government cunningly slaps a tax on public transport "to reduce the number of accidents at this busy time". The prices shoot up by more than 50% which simply has the affect of encouraging people to leave sooner and return later.