Ramadan Last Round (Jakarta)

Six wakes in the dead of night for sahur, the pre-dawn meal. This morning the wake had happened of itself, the house-boy’s knock only coming after ablutions. (Not formal Muslim ablutions in the case of the kaffir, merely the usual in order to get the sleep out of the eyes.) In Jakarta the meal needed to be completed by shortly after 4AM. Next door the young family of four with the fifth grandmother in the small room needed to be called repeatedly in order to rouse them. Ni looked forward to the morrow when eight o’clock breakfasts would resume, a living like that of the Sultans, she chortled. Fourteen years of domestic service had meant 5AM wakes throughout. Back in 2007 when she had been working for a Malay family in Sembawang had been her last Ramadan fast. Three hundred dollars monthly in those years in Sing, no off-day and trips on the weekend to JB tending to the family’s house there. Still, the hangbao for Hari Raya in that period had been something, over a month’s salary presented. How Ni reconciled the love-making all hours through the fast was unclear; certainly the lady needed no persuasion.
         A few days ago sitting by the window at the table the perfume of the mango on the tray had tempted her, as had the jasmine tea in its packet another day. As usual, in deference to the Fasters, most of the eateries around the city had raised curtains through the lunch hour, the staff serving very often themselves going without.
         A new prospective employer for Ni was an Indian Muslim who had answered Ni’s online advertisement respectfully and with fine words. Offering only a moderate wage, nonetheless Ni was enticed at the prospect. In the first mail the woman had stated her wish that her maid would wear a scarf at home in the presence of the husband. Nothing out of the ordinary for Ni of course. Ni was excited at the prospect of that employment. Living and working with a Muslim family, wearing the scarf again would help Ni return to the proper path, she said.
         Again, the visits to the Carpmael room notwithstanding. They were something else.
         Last number of days the large oil drums on the streets were having the cow hides attached at one end. On the other end they were unlidded. At a number of places through Tanah Abang the blue cylinders could be seen, raised horizontally on stilts. The second last day of Ramadan one man was found with a pair of sharp scissors trimming the hair of the skin that had been attached.
         It was only on the last day of the month that the festooned stages appeared where the drums would be mounted. In some places drummers beat out an energetic rhythm on the drums sitting along the path.
         On the eve of the New Year the drumming would keep up through the night almost until dawn, when prayers at the mosques would be held and later in the morning in newly bought attire the house visiting begin.