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!!