Here is Ramadan.

In Malaysia, there is Taoism, Hindu, Christian, Buddhism, and tribal animists. But mostly there is Islam. And as of today, Ramadan is here.

I, a heathen, assail the lady at the internet cafe with questions about the annual fast, rain pelting outside. One purpose, she says, of Ramadan, is to infuse an empathy within Muslims for the world's underprivileged, for those with no choice but to fast, for those forever famished. This is the fast's magnaminous bend. The other purpose, she says, of Ramadan, is the big one, the lynchpin of all Islamic tenets. Her mouth hangs open, rain pelts down, the key that unlocks the crux of my Islamic education is swimming up her throat. I'm embarrassed, she says through a faint blush, but the main purpose of Ramadan I cannot remember right now. Sorry.

The internet lady has seven children, is plump with an eighth. She is of Phillipino descent, is married to a stocky Malaysian she calls A real joker, and is herself the most convivial person I have encountered in Malaysia. The reason she cannot remember the main purpose of Ramadan right now is due to her feeling a little scatterbrain, I infer. Her dazzling emerald eyes are glazed, though usually sharp and succinct. Her blinding red lipstick sits slightly asymmetrical, fuller on the left. It is 3pm and her blessed soul has not eaten nor drunk since 5am. And nor could she have smoked, if that habit was hers.

I gulp from my bottled water and am refreshed. But oh, I perhaps shouldn't have done that, not in full panoramic view of the internet lady. I'm not sacrilegious, but to gulp is brash. She is right there. I am right here. One is sated and the other is not. But nay, she did not see me drink, because she is asleep on her desk, flat like roadkill. I cannot hear her breathe.

The rain is pelting outside and Allah is posing a test to his disciples. He is teasing and tempting and outright hectoring them. But the street is empty, looks like a ghost town. The Muslims will not succumb. The Muslims are busy at the moment, fasting. And in one month's time, they will be sated in a whole other way, a way that I cannot even begin to comprehend.