In the winding lanes of Deira, sandwiched between garment shops and restaurants, about 6,000 men break their fast daily with a sip of a special broth that is popular in southern India during Ramadan.
Seated on orange and blue tarpaulin that is stretched out across narrow paths leading to three mosques, thousands of workers in Dubai’s lively shopping district drink from plastic containers filled with kanji.
This rice porridge is also served in mosques to the faithful in India’s Tamil Nadu state during the holy month.
Word of the nutritious kanji filled with broken rice, minced meat and tempered with Indian spices has spread beyond low-income workers to tourists from the UK and businesspeople from Africa.
Families from other emirates also flock to Deira's Kuwaiti Mosque, which attracts the biggest numbers.
From serving just 50 people in 1976, crowds have now grown to more than 5,000 people around Kuwaiti mosque, located behind Dubai’s old Gold Souk, alone.
The remaining kanji boxes are distributed near two other Deira mosques.
The practice began 42 years ago when a group of men from Tamil Nadu decided to give Indian workers a special treat to remind them of iftar at home.
The kanji was initially prepared in people’s homes and then moved to makeshift cooking stations near the mosque.
“We cooked this Indian speciality in a shed on the street and separated the area with a metal partition so it would not affect the business of shopkeepers nearby. That was 20 years ago when the numbers were still at 500 people,” said Illias Khan, who owns an air-conditioning business and has volunteered with organisers the Iman Cultural Centre for the past two decades.
Fire safety rules then shifted the cooking to a warehouse in Al Quoz, where the mixture bubbles in large vats being used to prepare an iftar meal for 6,000 people.
One batch of kitchen staff gets to work by scraping coconuts, chopping onions and tomatoes the night before.
The next team comes in at 5am to wash the rice, blend the coconut to extract milk and add the meat and spices into the mixture bubbling in industrial-scale aluminium vats for almost two hours.
Once cooled for more than an hour, the mixture is emptied into blue buckets and then poured into small plastic containers.
“Each district in Tamil Nadu has a different way of making the kanji. When cooking such big amounts, then it’s the proportion and quantity of each spice you add that makes the difference,” said Mastan Ansari, who has worked in the UAE for a decade after stints in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and southern Tamil Nadu state in India, where he learnt watching his father cook.
The unusual nature of the porridge attracts new people every day, with more than 1,000 queuing up for more than an hour before iftar to be handed containers of the aromatic white broth.
Some take it to workers’ accommodations to break their fast with friends. Others said they gave it to elderly relatives who could not make it to the mosque daily.
A system of handing out tokens has helped to regulate the long queue and control crowds that grow restive when groups of men elbow their way to the front to gain quicker access to the kanji.
Shouts of “line, line, go back” erupt to deter any attempt to skip the queue.
Small shops along the street selling embroidered garments and abayas are shut for two hours in the evening as volunteers spread out the tarpaulin and lay out the kanji containers along with servings of oranges, dates, laban, water and samosas for each person.
An Indian family from Sharjah wanted to check if it was exactly the food they remembered from home.
“It is good to sit with the children and eat the kanji so they know what it was like for us to break our fast at home. This is good but not as spicy as in Tamil Nadu,” said Yasmin Ahmed, a housewife who took her young son to a private area for women inside the mosque while her husband broke his fast outside.
Spices are an essential ingredient of the kanji that simmers for more than an hour and a half in large aluminium vats in an Al Quoz warehouse.
The heat from the massive vats to which chopped meat is added is so intense that the kitchen staff fire up only one 500-litre vessel at a time.
“Coping with the heat is the most difficult during Ramadan. We cook in one vat and start on the next as the first one cools down,” said Usman Ali, owner of the Chennai Darbar Restaurant
“Biryani is more famous in the UAE. People may not know kanji here, but in Tamil Nadu it is always served to break roza [fast] in the mosques. On an empty stomach this gives a quick release of energy to people who are fasting. The methi [fenugreek] seeds and yoghurt we add cools the body that gets heated up during the day and is very good for digestion.”
A truck fitted with a small crane lifts up each 300kg crateload filled with boxes of kanji to transfer the containers to the mosques.
More than 100 volunteers come together after work to distribute the iftar meals to three mosques in Deira.
"Volunteers come in after office and they stay to clear up after the crowds leave," said Hameed Yasin, a logistics manager and general secretary of the Iman Cultural Centre, which annually co-ordinates the effort between companies that chip in with supplies, kitchen staff and transport.
“Seeing the smiling, happy faces of people when they get the kanji gives our bodies all the energy we need.”
The registered charity also organises medical camps for workers.
Their work began when the small group of men launched the Ramadan kanji initiative that they funded themselves as part of the Indian Muslim Association.
The massive effort now requires daily co-ordination since the numbers can spike, as usually happens over the weekend.
“All are welcome. You can come here whether you are a Muslim or non-Muslim, whether fasting or not. We just welcome people who are hungry,” Mr Yasin said.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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How much sugar is in chocolate Easter eggs?
- The 169g Crunchie egg has 15.9g of sugar per 25g serving, working out at around 107g of sugar per egg
- The 190g Maltesers Teasers egg contains 58g of sugar per 100g for the egg and 19.6g of sugar in each of the two Teasers bars that come with it
- The 188g Smarties egg has 113g of sugar per egg and 22.8g in the tube of Smarties it contains
- The Milky Bar white chocolate Egg Hunt Pack contains eight eggs at 7.7g of sugar per egg
- The Cadbury Creme Egg contains 26g of sugar per 40g egg
Series result
1st ODI Zimbabwe won by 6 wickets
2nd ODI Sri Lanka won by 7 wickets
3rd ODI Sri Lanka won by 8 wickets
4th ODI Zimbabwe won by 4 wickets
5th ODI Zimbabwe won by 3 wickets
Rashid & Rajab
Director: Mohammed Saeed Harib
Stars: Shadi Alfons, Marwan Abdullah, Doaa Mostafa Ragab
Two stars out of five
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
A Prayer Before Dawn
Director: Jean-Stephane Sauvaire
Starring: Joe Cole, Somluck Kamsing, Panya Yimmumphai
Three stars
TRAP
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Rating: 3/5
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
How the bonus system works
The two riders are among several riders in the UAE to receive the top payment of £10,000 under the Thank You Fund of £16 million (Dh80m), which was announced in conjunction with Deliveroo's £8 billion (Dh40bn) stock market listing earlier this year.
The £10,000 (Dh50,000) payment is made to those riders who have completed the highest number of orders in each market.
There are also riders who will receive payments of £1,000 (Dh5,000) and £500 (Dh2,500).
All riders who have worked with Deliveroo for at least one year and completed 2,000 orders will receive £200 (Dh1,000), the company said when it announced the scheme.
What drives subscription retailing?
Once the domain of newspaper home deliveries, subscription model retailing has combined with e-commerce to permeate myriad products and services.
The concept has grown tremendously around the world and is forecast to thrive further, according to UnivDatos Market Insights’ report on recent and predicted trends in the sector.
The global subscription e-commerce market was valued at $13.2 billion (Dh48.5bn) in 2018. It is forecast to touch $478.2bn in 2025, and include the entertainment, fitness, food, cosmetics, baby care and fashion sectors.
The report says subscription-based services currently constitute “a small trend within e-commerce”. The US hosts almost 70 per cent of recurring plan firms, including leaders Dollar Shave Club, Hello Fresh and Netflix. Walmart and Sephora are among longer established retailers entering the space.
UnivDatos cites younger and affluent urbanites as prime subscription targets, with women currently the largest share of end-users.
That’s expected to remain unchanged until 2025, when women will represent a $246.6bn market share, owing to increasing numbers of start-ups targeting women.
Personal care and beauty occupy the largest chunk of the worldwide subscription e-commerce market, with changing lifestyles, work schedules, customisation and convenience among the chief future drivers.
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The%20specs
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THREE
%3Cp%3EDirector%3A%20Nayla%20Al%20Khaja%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EStarring%3A%20Jefferson%20Hall%2C%20Faten%20Ahmed%2C%20Noura%20Alabed%2C%20Saud%20Alzarooni%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ERating%3A%203.5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
RESULTS
Welterweight
Tohir Zhuraev (TJK) beat Mostafa Radi (PAL)
(Unanimous points decision)
Catchweight 75kg
Anas Siraj Mounir (MAR) beat Leandro Martins (BRA)
(Second round knockout)
Flyweight (female)
Manon Fiorot (FRA) beat Corinne Laframboise (CAN)
(RSC in third round)
Featherweight
Bogdan Kirilenko (UZB) beat Ahmed Al Darmaki
(Disqualification)
Lightweight
Izzedine Al Derabani (JOR) beat Rey Nacionales (PHI)
(Unanimous points)
Featherweight
Yousef Al Housani (UAE) beat Mohamed Fargan (IND)
(TKO first round)
Catchweight 69kg
Jung Han-gook (KOR) beat Max Lima (BRA)
(First round submission by foot-lock)
Catchweight 71kg
Usman Nurmogamedov (RUS) beat Jerry Kvarnstrom (FIN)
(TKO round 1).
Featherweight title (5 rounds)
Lee Do-gyeom (KOR) v Alexandru Chitoran (ROU)
(TKO round 1).
Lightweight title (5 rounds)
Bruno Machado (BRA) beat Mike Santiago (USA)
(RSC round 2).
