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Faith, Fast, Feast and Acidity

As has been my fate, I have not once completed a Karwa Chauth fast successfully in the four years of marriage.

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Items such as fruit and sabudana khichdi are allowed during the Karwa Chauth fast
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No. Karwa Chauth doesn't get its name from my family. For if it did, it would probably not be about fasting.

As has been my fate, I have not once completed a Karwa Chauth fast successfully in the four years of marriage. And it's not for the want of trying. By the time I undertook the first Karva Chauth, I'd already been married for two years. So, why didn't I fast in the first two years? Karwa Chauth didn't register on our calendar, because we didn't co-habit with my in-laws.

This is why the third year of our marriage — when we homed in after relocating to the same city — was, for all practical purposes, the first in terms of behaving as a married couple, ergo attiring as mature people (read no funky owl prints because apparently only bachelors can be cool), wearing the wedding band on our finger, always going out as a couple (read no girls night out or boys escaping for a weekend), holidaying with other couples, and of course, celebrating festivals in all their richness with due rituals, including, of course, observing the Karwa Chauth.

Given that I'm the only bag-of-bones bahu she's known, my mother-in-law was considerably concerned about my well-being, and apprehensive if I'd last without food and water. I tried my best to reassure her that underneath my skinny frame lay a big fat reservoir of will. That if I put my mind to not eating, I'd happily be able to go without food for a day or two.

"You will certainly feel hungry by evening," she warned. As it turned out, my anxious mother-in-law ensured that I ate ample amount of fruit and drank nariyal pani for breakfast, a bowl of sabudana khichdi for lunch and gulped a large serving of milkshake in the evening. Oh, and did I mention popping a handful of nuts and dry-fruit just to be on the safe side? Suffice to say that the first Karwa Chauth was less about fasting and more about feasting on the choicest of health food.

The following year, I told the mother-in-law that I'd like to observe the Karva Chauth properly — more to test if I could really go without eating for about 12-14 hours than for my belief in the ritual, observed by married women for healthy and long lives of their husbands.

So, armed with mental fortitude, I was determined to bring food to mouth only after the mandatory moon sighting and husband-viewing-through-channi, prayers and other such customs depicted in Bollywood movies. It was decided that I'd fast in earnest. So, I went without food and water. Mother-in-law ensured that I remained free from household chores and other duties. She kept checking on me every couple of hours. I was doing just fine until early evening, when I started hearing a 'grr', 'grrrrrrr' sound coming from my tummy and a mild headache started setting in.

By sunset, my worried mother-in-law offered me coconut water. I'd barely had a few sips when I had that nasty feeling in my gullet — off I went to the bathroom and regurgitated all that I had ingested for dinner the previous night. "Acidity," tut-tutted the mother-in-law. "Wonder how this generation will carry our age-old traditions forward," she uttered, disappointment evident in her voice.

I popped a pill and ate some fruit soon after before abstaining again until moonrise and the works. Technically, I didn't fast until the end. This happened last year. I am hoping to reach the finishing line today. Fingers crossed.

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