Fast times for charity

The 18th century French philosopher Denis Diderot once said ‘Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things.’

I have never been one to attach much importance to helping others. Being an only child, I never had the time to think whether life was treating others as fairly as it did me. There have been times when I was known to scorn those who did not do as well as their counterparts.

However, all that changed when I had the chance to meet some amazing people last year during fundraising events, such as collections for the Pakistan fl ood victims and bone marrow transplant for young children. The media give but brief glimpses of the sadness that prevails outside our comfort zones.

It was not long before I realised that a person could not survive in this world alone. That was how my passion for community service came into existence. I a extremely pleased to say that this passion has brought about a great change in me – a change that I shall proudly carry throughout my life.

A recent documentary, aired on Channel 4, discussed the Tamil genocide in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan Government and The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were at war, with the innocent Tamil civilians stuck in between. Seeing mothers sitting on dirty floors, clasping little babies to their bosoms, whilst crying out for mercy, was appalling. The footages showing women corpses being sexually abused were abhorrent to anyone viewing the documentary.

After watching this, I really felt for the Tamil civilians. The war ended more than two years ago, but the wounds are still fresh. I used social networking websites to get in touch with Tamils, who could provide me more information on the issue and also advise me how I could be of any help. Through this, I learnt about the Tamil Aid Charity, whose main focus was constructing schools for Tamil children in Sri Lanka. By then, I had the basic idea in mind: taking part in an activity to raise money for the Tamil Aid charity.

During this time, it was the Holy month of Ramadan. My perception of Ramadan was a test of patience and a feel for how the poor people lived. Keeping this in mind, I decided to participate in a 10 km run, whilst fasting, to raise money for the Tamil Aid charity.

Deciding on a beautiful 9.4 km Aberdeen beach circuit, the next step was to create a page on Just Giving and on Facebook. That was all straightforward. The harder bits were yet to come – how exactly is a person, out of shape like myself, supposed to run 10 km – whilst fasting?

Needless to say, I had to devise a proper plan to execute the task successfully. Going in straight for the run, without practising, would have been suicidal; especially since I had little more than a week to train myself to develop the required stamina to survive the run. My training programme consisted of two parts, stamina building and following a high carbohydrate diet. I found it very hard to leave all the scrumptious Indian curries behind, and instead eat large amounts of pasta, rice, tuna and energy bars. The training consisted of three sets of runs, two 3 km and one 5 km. This had to be done on alternate days, just before sunset, so I could finish my run in time to break my fast.

The one thing I looked forward to everyday was that one sip of water, which I would break my fast with after the training. Meanwhile, I updated my statuses on social networking websites to collect the donations. After sending almost 600 text messages and writing on 500 Facebook profiles individually, I almost touched my target of £1,000.

Friday, 26th August 2011, the big day had finally come. It wasn’t until 6pm that I headed to an open field near the chosen beach circuit for warm up. By 7pm, I was at the start line, all set and ready to go. The weather was sunny – a real gift in Aberdeen. Setting off and pacing up, I was lucky to have a cool breeze! Contending with an unplanned incline at the halfway point , I had to reduce my speed to a jog and take a break. I continued running, whilst shuffl ing through the music playlist on my iPod – completing the final section quicker than expected. To my surprise, I was back at the starting point – I had completed the circuit!

Including my jog back home, I had run 10.2 km in just over an hour, including three short breaks. It was not over yet of course – I had to wait for half an hour for sunset, before I could break my fast. Later that evening, I went to a local restaurant for a feast.

I had successfully managed to cross my target of £1,000. I was glad to have taken the initiative of raising money for the Tamil Aid charity, as I am sure that the money will serve the Tamil children well. We may come from different backgrounds, races or religions, but the one thing all of us have in common is a heart, which beats 72 times a minute.

The author would like to thank the following for their support:

Anjana Dua Uthishtan Ranjan Syed Mohammad Maimoon Vinod Motiani Mohammad Danish Lalithaa Rhaasa Gayathri Rajasooriar Khushboo Khatri Sanjiv Sharma Hui Koay Joel Mon Raavaniya Pararajasingam Sam Lishak Adeel Malik Arif Rahman Jennifer Caren Lenz Anish Chavda Irham Usman Abdul Patel Aaron Pereira Var Hansen Thirukumaran Maheswaran Zara Hason Sam Cooper Midhat Talibi Heinrich Lohner Ahmad Zuberi Masuda Shaikh Patricia Shaikh Suliaman Malik Ibad Rizvi Omar Ahmed Tsegab Getachew Jasdeep Sahota Rodrigo Pracana Aamir Shamsi Mubeen Ahmed Fatima Ahmad Amardeep Legha Dipam Patel Isha Puri Omer Aziz Iqra Bilal Mohammad Hassan Khan Anas Imtiaz Abhijit Chandgadkar Aislinn Hayes Sayinthen Vivekanantham Kishwer Aziz Ibrahim Shaikh Raj Gandhi Sing Kwan Ng Harshil Palan Escapeda Saamy Nader Kaheil Jodie Mitchell-Aziz Ali Hammad Sohail Azhar Marko Krznaric Aslam Aziz Khalid Shaikh Hassan Al Halwachi Adya Jha Karan Murugavel Indy Kanthasamy Suhail Khalid Hussain Cheema Hashem Cheema Saad Mughal Subbiah Thannirmalai Maria Qurashi Umair Aasem Usman Siddiqui