Meet Darryl Wiley. Darryl is the senior advertising manager at Time Out Abu Dhabi and a generally agreeable, pleasant kind of guy. This week at the TOAD office, we’ve kept Darryl under close watch and have been monitoring his behaviour. Why? Because Darryl has risen to a challenge many non-Muslim expats in the UAE would shy from: Darryl is fasting. We promise you, there was no bribery or threats involved in Darryl’s decision to abstain from food and water and no members of the sales team were harmed in the making of this interview.
How long have you been living in the UAE?
This October I will have been living in the UAE for four years.
Why did you decide to try fasting this year, since you have been living in the region for so long?
You see what everyone else is going through while they’re fasting and you want to understand what it feels like. It’s more out of curiosity, than anything else. I think trying it enables you to feel more respect for what fasters are doing and as much as someone can tell you what it’s like, you can never know until you try it yourself.
So how many days have you fasted now?
This is my eleventh day. I’m aiming for the whole month but am not sure yet, we’ll see how it goes.
And how many hours do you fast?
I’m kind of doing it my own way. When I wake up in the morning at 6am, I have something to eat and drink. Then I go through the day without food or water until iftar time. So I fast for just over 12 hours.
Well our observation has been that you appear to be calmer, more relaxed.
[Darryl laughs] At the start I was feeling more irritable actually. I’ve felt like I can lose my temper quite easily and I have no patience. And I can see why people do get annoyed, especially when driving at the end of the day. I hate driving before iftar time.
Does it give you road rage?
No, but I’d say driving becomes more difficult because you’re tired and less perceptive. So you’re not as alert and sharp as you should be and your reactions are slower – which is where the danger comes in. If something were to happen in front of you, you might not react quickly enough.
Do you think the fasting has affected your work?
It hasn’t affected my normal working day, no.
But there is a point in the day where you feel burnt out, when is that?
Late afternoon around 4pm onwards is when I feel a bit more tired.
Does it upset you if other people are eating in front of you?
I must admit, I haven’t found I have an issue with people eating or drinking in front of me at all. But everyone’s different. It’s not so much the hunger that I find hard, it’s more the dryness of the throat. The actual food issue doesn’t really bother me because I don’t really eat a lot during the day anyway. I even forget a lot of the time, because I’m running around having meetings with people.
Do you find it’s put you in touch with your spiritual side, even in the non-religious sense of the word?
No.
You haven’t had any deep thoughts or revelations about yourself or the world in general?
No.
So it hasn’t made you more pensive or reflective?
Reflective in terms of…no. I don’t think it has. As I said, I have a better understanding and sense of appreciation about the experience. Maybe it’s too early to tell.
How have you been feeling physically with regards to the fast?
Today I’m fine. Yesterday was the hardest day actually.
That’s interesting, you’d think the first day would be hard and it’d get easier.
No, on the first day I didn’t actually make a conscious decision to start fasting. By the end of the day I realised, ‘oh, I haven’t drunk or eaten anything today.’ So I decided I might as well try it the next day as well. It was at the end of my second day I started getting headaches late in the afternoon, and feeling tired while driving back to Dubai from Abu Dhabi. And yesterday morning I woke up with a headache. It was my hardest day so far. But today I feel good. Not hungry. Not thirsty. Energy levels seem normal. I don’t even feel irritable anymore. Also, you really appreciate food. Just before 7pm last night I kept looking at the time thinking, ‘Yay! I can eat soon. I can eat!’
