My first (and hopefully last, as it is almost over) Ramadan misadventure

There was a story in the Gulf News today about three people who were arrested and jailed for consuming food and drinks in public during the fasting hours of Ramadan. How dumb do you have to be, I wondered to myself upon reading it.

I mean, I've only just returned from vacation and I can remember not to chow down in front of hungry others, went the thought train. If you've been here the entire time, well, as my favourite character on Fox's old show Arrested Development used to say, "C'mon!"

Flash forward a couple of hours. It's 5:59 pm, and several colleagues have encouraged me to become excited that the Gloria Jeans kiosk in the lobby is about to open, despite the evening call to prayer signalling iftar time being a half-hour away.

As we waited for the coffees we would still need to consume in the "Ramadan" lunch room, one of them offered me a piece of her chocolate cookie. I proceeded to much away, utterly unaware – until we gasped and remembered – that I had become among the clueless few. It all kind of reminds me of this.