Fasting worker smiles through tough regimen for family’s sake

Dubai: It's a hot weekday afternoon, under the unforgiving August sun. Work goes on as usual for Sadiq Hussain — washing the cars that come in at the manual car wash division, of an Emarat petrol station on Shaikh Zayed Road, where he works. But what makes his day different is that he is fasting.

"This is my eighth Ramadan in UAE and probably the hardest of them all," said the Indian, from Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh. "But, I manage to fast all 30 days," he quickly added.

"It is very hard to work outdoor. Looking back, I feel the past years were much easier than this time," he said, in between greeting his customers with a smile.

His employer follows a six-hour working time during Ramadan instead of the regular eight hours.

"Today, I am on the 2 pm to 12 am shift. I often work overtime for the extra benefits," Hussain said, explaining the longer hours. He gets one day off every week.

After getting off work at 12am, he waits with his colleagues for the company transportation to drop them off at their accommodation. "We reach back around 1.15am. After prayer, we cook ourselves a meal and have suhour," Hussain said, detailing his routine working day during Ramadan.

After Fajr prayer, he goes off to sleep until shortly before the next prayer time at 12pm, he said.

Shortly after 1pm, his bus arrives once again to take him back to work. Iftar time for him is mostly at work. At the space in front of the mosque within the petrol station iftar, provided by the mosque, is laid out. His wife, parents, two sisters and a brother are all back home. So, most of all what he misses during Ramadan is having his family close, said Hussain, who got married just a few months ago.