Ramzan is less than a week away, but the signs of the season are missing.
Most masjids in the city go for a fresh coat of paint and spruce up amenities before the holy month. Some of them string up fairy lights on the minarets for the month-long season of fasting and prayer. But this year, many masjids are shuttered, except for the maulvis during prayer time.
“Maybe the first time no Ramzan food walk at Charminar and haleem fresh off the bhatti,” said Sandeep Raj, a realtor.
While Ramzan is an intensely spiritual and religious experience for the faithful, in Hyderabad, it creates thousands of jobs as hotels serve up haleem — an earthy thick broth of meat, lentils, cereals and spices cooked for a long duration in a mud-and-brick oven called bhatti. It is a cottage industry that creates employment for thousands of cooks, artisans, metal workers, labourers and adds to the State’s kitty in terms of taxes.
“Serving it in restaurants and in open spaces is out of question. We are looking at an option for online orders and contactless deliveries on the same day,” says M. A. Majeed who heads the Haleem Makers Association.
“Ramzan sees an influx of workers into Hyderabad from across the country including from Bengal, Odisha and Bihar. I am getting calls from them but we are helpless,” says Mohammad Rabbani, the owner of Shah Ghouse Café. “There is an atmosphere of fear in society. The movement of animals has also been affected. That will affect farmers as well,” said Mr. Rabbani, adding that he had never visualised a blow to business like this.
During Ramzan, goat and sheep farmers from central India bring their animals to Hyderabad.
As the shops and restaurants of Hyderabad remain shuttered, it will be a grim Ramzan for hotel owners, workers, artisans and foodies.
Ramzan is also the month where Muslims distribute zakat, the obligation of charity, enjoined upon the faithful. It also one of the reasons why beggars from different corners of the State and even from outside make a beeline to the city and wait by masjids for alms during the period.
