SHAZ MIAH IS FROM NEWPORT. HIS FAMILY RESTAURANT, INDIAN SUMMER, IS IN MONMOUTH AND HAS FED OVER 200 ELDERLY AND VULNERABLE PEOPLE DURING THE PANDEMIC, AND CONTINUES TO FEED KEY WORKERS EVERY DAY. F CLARKE TALKED TO SHAZ ABOUT HIS FAMILY BUSINESS, OBSERVING RAMADAN DURING LOCKDOWN, AND THE IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNITY, ALWAYS, BUT ESPECIALLY NOW.

F: Can you just tell me a little bit about what Ramadan has been like for you and your family this year, during the pandemic, and how you’ve adapted to it?

Shaz: Lockdown has meant significant disruptions really in all of our lives. Ramadan is supposed to be about spiritual connection, being together with family and relatives, having regular Iftar, which means the breaking of the fast, going to the mosque on a regular basis…my father, he would go to the mosque five times a day, but at the moment he can’t go at all. So we have built a small mini-mosque in our house, so he doesn’t have to travel, I don’t know, 200, 300 metres to his local nearest mosque. He only has to step one foot from one room to another to actually enter our mini-mosque, so that’s been quite good, actually. 

Family and friends can’t visit, there’s been no big Iftar feast, you know, that we usually look forward to. And friends are nowhere to be seen this year, they’re just invisible. So I think this year, technology has really been our best friend. It’s been our friend, our relative, and our family, because that’s all we’ve been doing, either Skyping or Facetiming one another, you know?

My mum and my dad – he’s in his seventies and my mum’s in her late sixties – they’ve never liked technology before, they’ve always kind of been reluctant or fearful of technology, but now, honestly, after using Facetime and Skype and so on and so forth….they actually love it, they can’t stay away from it. 

At times I’ve honestly felt, is it really Ramadan? Because the spiritual connection has really diminished, with no gatherings taking place at all, so in general I feel this year will definitely go down in the history books as the most weird Ramadan ever, and we’ve been part of it, which is good in a way. Eid is only a few days away from now…

F: And how will you celebrate Eid this year?

Shaz: Well Eid is primarily a feasting day after a strenuous thirty days or twenty-nine days of fasting in Ramadan, which is actually the ninth month of the Islamic calendar – not a lot of people know that. 

I mean, Eid is a very significant and a very joyous day, and it’s like a thanksgiving day if you like, for believing men and women. On this day Muslims, like us guys, will show our real joy for our health, strength and the opportunities of life that God has given us. The way we’re going to celebrate this year will be very different. Like I said, because our extended friends and family are missing so there is nobody to celebrate Eid with apart from your household family members. 

We purposely built a large table for occasions like Eid so we can all gather around, feast and socialise, but this year, the table is going to be quite empty. Normally we’d have an activity day: Pass the Parcel, Musical Chairs… we’d have an Eid gift ceremony where we’d present gifts to one another, but you know, this isn’t going to be possible. I do look forward to Eid, because I can give people hugs, and greet them with “Eid Mubarak”, but during this Eid the only hugs i’m going to be giving are to my dad and my boys and my mum, and my wife if she’s lucky! 

F: Tell me a little bit about the restaurant, and what you’ve been doing for key workers?

Shaz: Obviously the pandemic has affected many businesses across the UK, especially food businesses.  I run a family business in Monmouth called Indian Summer, and obviously we had to close down the restaurant for a while because we didn’t know what to do at certain times, but then when we opened up, we thought, do you know what? We’re going to try and help the local community because they’ve always been very, very loyal to us and it’s something that we can actually give back to the community.

So we prepared over 200 meals in March at the beginning of this pandemic and we’ve distributed 200 meals to the elderly, the vulnerable, people with underlying health problems, and we’ve had great help from the local authorities in distributing these meals to a lot of people. 

We had an elderly lady – an eighty-year old lady – and another gentleman who was in his early nineties I think, and for the first time they’ve actually tasted an Indian meal – they’d never ever had Indian food before, and they absolutely loved it. The way I know is that their kids, obviously grown-up, came and said, “look, you’ve brightened up their day, they really appreciate it…and as of now they will be ordering from you on a regular basis to make up for lost time.” 

And it’s stories like that really that make it all worthwhile. So, from that, what we decided to do, we’ve giving 50% off for all NHS staff, frontline staff, all key workers, police force, fire brigade, you know, all those people, 50% off their main courses and that went really, really well, people really took advantage of that. And then, only a couple of weeks ago, a really nice gesture made by a local company, Sheppard Davies Asset Management – his name is John, please forgive me John I’ve mentioned your name – but he’s been really noble, and he’s said “look, you know what, I really, really like what you’re doing and I want to be a part of it and i’m going to be contributing the other 50% of the meal…” which makes it – guess what –  one hundred percent free for key workers – and that’s still an ongoing campaign that we’re doing. It’s nice, you know, when people come and pick up their meal and it’s a really nice way of appreciating that hard work they do for us. 

F: And how important do you feel that sense of community is, especially right now?

Shaz: Oh my God, community’s everything at the moment isn’t it? Community spirit is at all time high, up and down the country, it’s more community spirit than ever, you know, people are helping each other, people are helping their neighbours – we’ve had instances where neighbours didn’t even know who their neighbours were – but now they’ve got to know their neighbours, their names, if they’ve got sons or daughters, extended family, you know, there’s a whole community spirit about the whole thing. This pandemic has definitely increased community spirit.

F: Do you think there’s some lessons we can take from this pandemic, in terms of appreciation for family and friends, community…?

Shaz: Yeah, I think at times when people stay home they just want to rip each other’s hair out because they’ve had enough and they need to get out and this and that, but honestly, it’s been a good time because people were able to spend good, quality time with their family, you know? Schooling hasn’t been very efficient at times, because, you know, children going into school is one thing but then being online is a different thing altogether.

If you’ve got a young family, young children, at times it can be difficult, but nonetheless, it’s been a really good opportunity to spend time with your family, and your parents, you know, get to know them very well. Life is always very busy, and you hardly get the time to do that, this has definitely given people the time to do that. 

And also, the community, whichever community you’re in you get to know them virtually, on Facebook there’s so many covid help groups, and you can see, people are really putting themselves out there to help other people. So I think one thing people can take from this is the community spirit, and we need to capture this. After the pandemic – hopefully this will be over soon – we need to make sure that we capture all of the good will and gestures that keep it going – not to lose sight of the community spirit that we have developed.

So make that into a positive thing and take it forward to the next level, I think. I don’t know how we’re going to do that but we need to really think about how not to lose what we’ve gained over the last few months.