Fasting....How can you survive? “You neither eat nor drink the whole day?” Tan asked me. “Yes. The whole day. But not at night. Only from dawn to sunset”, I replied. “How can you survive? Can you survive?”, Tan asked again. I smiled. “Well, it’s not just you. Even Habib Bourguiba, the late President of Tunisia who was also a ‘Muslim’, convinced that fasting is against productivity. You know the history?”, I took my turn asking Tan my question. “How should I know? Tell me!”, he said. In 1961, Habib Bourguiba made a controversial statement claiming that fasting should not be observed for it reduces productivity. He then appeared on television with his cabinet, eating and drinking during Ramadhan. “Why so harsh?”, Tan was shocked. “I don’t know. Was it out of ignorance or arrogance? Perhaps a combination of both”, I replied. Even though fasting is there in the name of Lent among Christians, it is always the Muslim’s version that cultivates questions and debates.