Interesting concept, Ramadan. And one I knew about but, clearly, had never experienced.

One full month of fasting during the day. From sunrise to sundown. Nothing to eat. Nothing. And it gets more difficult than that.

No smoking, either. And here is the really tough one: No liquids. Not even water. From sunrise to sundown.

This is a test for every Muslim. And I have to express how impressed I am by anyone who can get it done. Nothing in your mouth (no chewing gum, either) for more than 12 hours … for 30 consecutive days. Nothing like it in the other major Western religions.

The authorities help everyone along, a bit. It is illegal to eat or drink in public during daylight hours. Restaurants are closed. Groceries are open, but you can’t eat anything on the spot.

But it gets a little trickier for non-Muslim journalists for a couple of reasons.

–We work for a Muslim company. Eating and drinking in the newsroom is forbidden. Smoking, too.

–Print journalists tend to eat at their desks. We’ve all been doing it forever.  Because we don’t have time to get up, go to a break room or a cafeteria and spend a half hour. We don’t. (That’s why the keyboards in newsrooms are particularly disgusting; sorry for the visual.)

In a given eight- or nine-hour shift,  any editor or reporter inside a newsroom is going to eat and drink at their desks. Repeatedly. Water. Coffee. Tea. A Coke. A candy bar. A tuna sandwich. Burgers from the clerks’ food runs. Pizza.

It’s not only a sort of continuous snacking, it’s also generally one full meal at your seat. Lunch or dinner.

But not during Ramadan. Not at our seats.

Non-Muslims are allowed to eat and drink in one room that cannot be seen from the newsroom nor from the outside. Which ought to suit us fine, but then we’re back to the age-old problem: We want to eat and drink at our desks, same as usual. The notion of getting up, going to the room at the edge of the newsroom and sitting at a table with people from other newsroom departments … is weird. We can feel the clock ticking toward deadline. We have to get out. But we want to take those chips with us.

Anyway, we tend to eat less, and then when daylight is over, generally about 6:50 p.m., we eat a fairly big meal, just as the local Muslims do.

Meantime, we have lots of stops and starts.  A reach for the water bottle and … no. Can’t do that. Pulling open the drawer with a candy bar and … nope. Still daylight. But I don’t have time to go to the special room. So I’ll pass on it. Till I can’t take it anymore because my head hurts a little or I feel dehydrated.

Observing Ramadan’s fasting is a test anywhere. Oddly, it may be a little more difficult in a newspaper office. Maybe we’re going to have to learn to eat just before we come in, and eat when we leave. You know, change our habits. If we can.