In the olden days the guests wont to come to your house unannounced, any time of the day or maybe late night. You didn't do much complaining, because those days there have been limited facilities available to stay busy with: there have been no mobile phones and only the privileged few boasted of getting landlines; there was no social media or instant messaging apps; you had limited choices for entertainment, for instance , no twenty-four hour TV channels then very rare live telecast of events or sports, a solitary cinema in your locality, and therefore the omnipresent radio didn't really disturb you very much like you'll listen from anywhere within the house, doing anything, which you furthermore may did an equivalent on your turns as did your guests. Therefore, you weren't irritated or disturbed even when the guests landed up suddenly for lunch or supper.
As modernization started grasping folks with choices opening up aplenty, you becoming busy all the time you made the decision that prior intimation before coming is a component of etiquette, and if those norms were violated you bought irritated, embarrassed or maybe angry. Now, let's not analyze the activities that keep you busy nowadays. during this scenario we'll discuss our topic, primarily in context of India which is believed to possess high values of hospitality. And in fact , we'll exclude from our analysis all those uncouth people that treat guests deferentially based only on their rank and file. We'll also not consider the phenomenon of house-guests whose numbers, anyway, are dwindling at a really fast rate because of modernization and business.
Depending on the character of visits there are various sorts of guests who can visit you, but whoever the guest is and whatever be the sort , the essential approach is that you simply must be cordial to all or any of them, smiling at them albeit you're irritated, and you want to always offer them a seat and a glass of water; for the remaining a part of your hospitality you're liberal to decide, and actually , keep ready a manual.
Lots of people visit you on a day to day on matters of errands, consultation or giving a private opinion or message. Technically, they can't be termed as guests because they're not on the brink of you or relate to you in the other way. Therefore, you'll entertain them at the veranda if you've got any or within the chairs closest to main door, and will the visit take a substantial amount of your time you're liberal to offer him/her a cup of tea, not necessarily with biscuits.
Then classmates of your school or college-going children visit your house often for discussions or simply company. Here, the guests normally enter the classroom where your children live. Now, the woman of your house must not ever call her child inside for food meant for him/her only; all must be offered an equivalent food and you want to understand that those kids always come hungry. Your office colleagues or your boss or teachers or tutors or doctors are always held in high esteem and you host them within the better of ways possible, often calling a number of them to possess tea and snacks at the board .
For guests who aren't that close or that distant, but who come regularly like your neighbors you'll host them within the living room offering them tea with snacks. However, they're not qualified to be invited to take a seat at the board , unless amid ladies who are friends of the women of your house, as per you manual perhaps. for a few distant guests who you recognize come for plain time-pass, you'll host them within the veranda and dismiss them with a cup of tea at the foremost .
Your special guests are always the dearest friends and therefore the closest relatives whom you do not even mind coming unannounced. you create them sit within the main room and provides them first a welcome cup of tea. within the meantime, a number of the guests may move round the house to satisfy your children and therefore the ladies getting to the kitchen to satisfy your wife. Then they're all invited to take a seat at the board for home-cooked snacks or meals, with tea or coffee.
Rare exception to such a manual might be some very old friends or distant relatives who happen suddenly during a zeal find and reunite: some strangers coming unannounced on a reference or on a special job, and counting on the character of your interaction a number of them might qualify to take a seat at the board .
Supposing you yourself are staying at your relative's place things may go a touch wayward when guests visit and you get introduced to a number of them, because you're naturally not considerably conscious of the guest-treatment manual adopted by that head of household. for instance , you'll take a case of mine. A guest, perhaps not-so-close-or-not-so-distant, visited my uncle's house where i used to be staying for 2 nights. the top of the household seated him within the veranda, and a few time later involved me for introduction because the guest was well versed in my professional field. The discussion was happening very fine once I had to travel to the bedroom assigned to me to attend to a crucial call. As I came out and was crossing the kitchen my uncle's daughter handed me a steaming cup of tea. I visited the veranda sipping the tea as i used to be wanting to continue the discussion. My uncle searched at me aghast and embarrassed. He said,
"Ah... ! So nice! you bought your tea!"
It was my address get embarrassed as I side-glanced at the guest who, fortunately, was busy together with his discourse or perhaps pretended to not notice anything.
I stormed inside and pulled up my niece for not entertaining the guest first. She smiled awkwardly and went back to the kitchen. Then realization hit me: yes, this particular guest isn't qualified for a cup of tea. However, I felt quite bad and insisted on serving tea to him and uncle.
Guests are an integral a part of our lives, and that we cannot do without them. So often, we await them; so often, we get so delighted to welcome them in. In a way, we are all guests on this planet earth. Mind this!
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