South Asia's Muslims eagerly await Eid

As they prepare to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr, South Asian Muslims express gratitude for blessings bestowed upon them during this year's Ramadan.

After a relatively peaceful month of fasting, Muslims in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are rejoicing as they gear up to mark the end of Ramadan.

With the region's Eid-ul-Fitr festivities expected to fall on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday (July 28th-30th), droves of South Asian Muslims were out buying clothes and stocking up on food and other items in order to celebrate the end of the holy month with families and friends.

Hazeem Bari, who runs a jewellery shop in Galle, shopped for holiday shoes for himself and his family. Muslims in southern Sri Lanka were anxious going into Ramadan after recent anti-Muslim riots, he said.

"But we are very thankful to God that this month has been relatively peaceful. And this is a very exciting time of year for us because after a month of fasting and prayers, we are impatiently waiting to celebrate Eid," Bari told Khabar.

In New Delhi's Patparganj section, the Standard Meat Shop turned brisk business as customers clamoured for cuts of mutton, chicken or fish – key ingredients for holiday feasts featuring kotfta, shish kebab and salaam chicken.

"Our sales go up by seven to eight times during Ramadan, as most of the people make large numbers of mutton recipes and sauces," shop manager Dilshad Ahmad told Khabar South Asia. "We have to engage extra staff during Ramadan, as the demand for our products touches its peak and sometimes we are unable to cope with the orders for Eid."

In Bangladesh, train and bus tickets went on sale early in anticipation of a rush of people travelling home for Eid. The Bangladesh Railway was selling around 18,000 advance tickets daily for trains running between Dhaka and other cities, The Daily Star reported.

This year's Eid-ul-Fitr retail season has been a boon for Bangladeshi business owners, who suffered immensely from unrest that preceded January's general elections.

"Whatever we lost during last year's upheaval, it looks like we'll be able to make considerable gains in this frenzied shopping period, which picked up for the past week and will continue until the very last day of Ramadan," Shahnaz Khan, owner of K-Kraft, Bangladesh's leading fashion retailer, told Khabar.

"What we're seeing now is truly heart-lifting for business owners," said Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) Vice President Mohammad Helal Uddin.

And for Colombo resident and marketing executive Kareem Siddique, this year's Ramadan has brought him much to be thankful for come Eid-ul-Fitr.

After being out of work for nearly a year, Siddique landed a new job a few weeks ago. He intended to use his first paycheque to celebrate Eid "on a grand scale" with his mother, who recently recovered from a health scare, he said.

"A few months back, my mother was diagnosed with cancer and doctors lost hope, but thanks to a miracle by Allah, she is now out of danger," Siddique told Khabar.

Altaf Masoodi in New Delhi, Shariar Sharif in Dakha and Munza Mustaq in Colombo contributed to this report.