Athithi Devo Bhava

I must I must I must!! Yes I must share what I learnt during a short vacation at my in-laws place Srirangapatna.

Srirangapatna is small town near Mysore. I got to move around the town only after my marriage as that's the native of my husband. I found the people living there very religious and traditional. 

Each house had a beautiful , traditional sit out ( missing in most of the modern independent houses/apartments). Without a miss, every single house had a rangolli in front of the house. Most of the festivals celebrated beautifully with age old traditions. 

This time our visit being around Tulsi pooja festival, it was really beautiful to see lamps lit around in front of every house, tulsi plant adorned with colorful flowers.

Coming to my episode, I was chatting with my mother-in-law at the varanda/sit out in the morning. My 1.5 yr old son was playing as well there. 

"Come come Rajesh! come inside, have breakfast with us!!" Cheered my father-in-law from inside the house. 

Rajesh was our neighbor who just dropped in to visit my naughty son. Seemed he continuously heard my son shouting ajja, annama (grandpa , grandma) since morning, which drove him curious to visit the new little guest.

Meanwhile I wondered inside, where to make breakfast now suddenly for this sudden guest. FIL does not have any other job, simply call every one and serve tea/coffee.

Luckily the neighbor declined the breakfast offer, spared few mins with my son and got back to his house. I sighed, good!

I then moved on with my routine chores, but to my surprise around 11 am I see the neighbor have coffee with my inlaws in the hall.

The next day there was a plumber at home for some minor repair work. When I got downstairs to have breakfast I saw my MIL prepare some extra rotis for him. I though to my myslef, gone, poor MIL has to keep on preparing something or the other for guests.

I am not against guests, but treating every single guest royally sounds difficult tedious me.

Back home after vacation, we had a weed cutter visit us to weed out the bushes around our house. He was accompanied by his  2 year old son. When I saw them I slowly said to myself, I better inform my husband well in advance that I do not have extra breakfast for them and that I could just serve them with a cup of tea when the job was done.

However my heart could not stop seeing the 2 year old sit in the sun.  I quickly offered him a pack of biscuit and a chocolate.

At the same time, the way my age old MIL took care of the guests bothered me. I called my husband and said I could manage a small meal for them. My husband said, that's fine just give whatever I could offer at that time.

Owing to the lack of time,  I thought of sacrificing my breakfast instead of  preparing extra one.I quickly pulled out 2 plates from the shelf added little variety rice, potato curry and a spoon of coconut chutney. The plate looked great.

Also managed to serve a cup of tea, milk to the weed cutter and his son. The weed cutter resumed his work after having breakfast and the boy started playing around. I felt happy that the short meal really sufficed.

Guess what, to my surprise I too had enough breakfast to sacrifice my tummy. Not sure it was already full in the joy of sharing and caring. Silently I took a bow to my in-laws in my mind.

For a moment , though I felt shameful first, later felt happy for having learnt a lesson in the way of treating our guests.

Even my mother had told me once, not everybody comes to your house for want of food or hunger. It is either to help us or just spend some good time with us. If so,  it is then our duty to treat them well be it any guest near or far, small or big.

Also when you have the heart of sharing , even small gestures fulfill your guests heart!!

Nothing falls short in front of a broad mind!! Nothing is impossible for a heart that wants to share and care!

Truly Atthithi Devo Bhava!!!

Enjoy sharing and caring!! Have fun with your guests!!

Thank you Google!!

Here after 2 years, hope to really set my thoughts free before my son wakes up.

So what happened, that I am finally pulled back to writing today! It's all google magic.

It's been quite sometime now, that I have been seeing ads by Google regularly,  regarding google app getting answers for anything that you want easily. I just used to smile and move on.

This morning I called up a hospital to enquire about booking an appointment with a renowned surgeon.

Started with Google, got the hospital number from the search engine.The phone number was right. Wow!! and the answering machine answered me kindly wait you are in a queue...Ok!!...you are at number 11...number 8....I think wow!! I am knowing the queue position too..what a progress in technology....super....number 7....number5....past 6 mins...i am still in queue...but not bad.....number 4, then number 3...number2....time elapsed 8 mins......good I shall not hang up....next turm is mine....and yes number 1, finally I here the telerep voice...how can I help you mam...

upon hearing my request, my call is transferred to the relevant appointment...I get to talk to another apt rep now....Ok cool.

I request, mam may I know the procedure to book an appointment or see the surgeon at the OPD. Oh!! I hear from the rep and she says, sorry...booking appointment is possible only through the website mics.com....I say thanks, hang up the call.

To my dismay I see the website is wrong...and now again wait in the queue ??? No way!!

Google the hospital website again try to book for appointment directly! no luck! Still not bad get to chat online with another representative. Cool!! Better than waiting in the tele queue.

Hello Sir...yet again restart with my enquiry....get a decent reply from the rep..how may i help you....cool...

Guess what, after all,  I again land up with the hospital phone number but no real solution to my enquiry. I argue with the rep, saying I have already contacted them, but did not get my answer and I hear again.  Sorry mam, you have to contact the secretary, no other go.

Dismayed!! I leave a poor rating to the chat and carry on with my other routine chores. ok!! what now, shall try my luck calling again in yet another free time.

It's post lunch time now. Ok what call again, the matter is urgent? no let's try with Google once.

I search for the Doctor's details and to my surprise I land up with the very right information, www.micsheart.com I was seeking for.  Without any hassles I book my appointment in no time. Thank you google.   I could now call up my dependent uncle,aunt and plan my stay, visits etc.

It was the same Google who helped me with dr's contact number couple of weeks ago, when there was an emergency at home. That day I forgot to thank you but today I feel much much much obliged to You - google!!!

In my view Google owes the salary of both online rep and the tele rep.

With technology like google,  I feel if the tele rep or online rep could go on a  mile extra and help with the exact/right information they would do justice to their job rather than blindly answering like programmed machines.

The telerep did give me some info but not the exact/right website address.

For the tele rep who gave me the incomplete website address, it was just another call, but it did waste lots of my precious time and energy. Which rep does ever bother or think so much about a needed caller!!

But Google you Rock for sure and you made my day with  your magic!!

 Thanks soooooooooo much!!

My little boy is still asleep!! Thanks to my friend for motivating me to get active and pen down my thoughts when possible.

Cheers,
Akshatha