It’s not optional — one is expected to fast throughout the entire month. However, in cases of hardship (illness, pregnancy, that time of the month, etc.) one can be excused if one makes up for it by fasting at some other time of the year. Now what constitutes “hardship” is often a subjective decision. I suspect that serves as the escape clause for most Muslim South Asian players or athletes.

O M G …so it WASN’T just me…I’ve been going nuts, accusing myself of hallucinating all that gastrointestinal torture, since I am normally such a fan (and y’all know I’m loyal). It was horrific and I’m with you– I don’t think I’ll be able to go back, either. The crying all night long is still too fresh in my memory. Sigh. There’s no “in between” for Southie places, is there? Either it’s a nightmare or it’s fantastic. Enne cheyyam…

Interesting about Udupi. Have been going there since I was a kid, ended up with food poisoning a few months ago. I mean, really bad (as in a few days). I can’t step back in there again – just psyhologically impossible, it was THAT bad.

I shall try Amma…

I thought that it was “optional”. I remember going to school with a bunch of Islamic kids and most of them fasted most of the time. But some of them, specially if they were sick right around the start, skipped fasting that year.

and the mention of ramadan gives rise to a question – is there an exception for sportsmen, or some such thing? i assume that pakistan’s players, who are devout muslims, weren’t fasting through the day while playing this tournament?

that’s one pageant where the parents won’t stand for any shortchanging on college scholarship money.

it would be sweeter, though, if we were running against the pageant.

Have I been working too long? I went to the link and it said the pageant was yesterday?

we would, however, be running up against the very formidable Miss India DC/VA/MD competition with regards to attendance.