As I mixed the tea and grabbed the tiny sweetener sachet this morning at sehar/sehri time(the pre dawn break-fast for fasting) nothing came out of the little container despite clicking it a few times-I looked at the clock ominously; the sehri was nearly ending because as most of us, I like to keep the last few minutes for my peaceful cup of tea after seeing that every child has had what they should –I desperately clicked the sweetener holder a few more times-‘mom, you know there is nothing left there so just go for sugar instead’, she had a cheeky smile on her face as she started removing the food from the table whilst chewing on her last bites; because she knows that I don’t use sweetener for diabetes or something but just to cut down some extra calories.
‘Oh yes’. I got the idea and ran upstairs to check my hospital bag because I usually keep a packet there; and this time I thrived!

As I sipped my fairly cold tea by now, with my eyes fixed on TV displaying special transmission for the sehar time, I felt a shiver in my whole body when I thought that one day suddenly the sweeteners of our life container will come to an end like this-when suddenly we’ll try to move into the next moment-unaware and busy as we are- but there won’t be another moment! Just like the sweeteners which are usually in an opaque container and we keep clicking one after the other for our busy tea times in busy lives and we cannot say when will we come across the last one- exactly in the same fashion we keep breathing one after the other and keep moving into another day-without knowing when will we reach the last flash of this life-after which there won’t be another moment to spend-because just as the counted sweeteners in the pack, the moments of this life have also been counted already, but we are naive because life is also like the non-transparent container through which we cannot count beforehand; but indeed we have been clearly reminded that any moment can be the last; exactly as any sweetener can be the final….

The adhan (call to prayer) started on TV followed by the one on clock and as I started clearing the kitchen, I wondered that what were we waiting for…still planning to do some sort of good deed- if ever we got an opportunity for-perhaps not in our next 5 year plan, but may be in the one after that-when these ever-growing jobs of day to day life will diminish; whereas we are well-aware that these routine tasks will remain until we are alive; if we have to go along that extra mile, it has to be now-there won’t be a road ever in life, which will be completely empty just for us-with no other traffic on it; hence we ought to catch the best of every moment because who knows whether there will be another sweetener in our packet for the next tea...