Last week, I had a reason to go to my hometown and visit my
relatives and family friends. Almost all of them. The reason as such is not
that important for today’s discussion. What is more important is my experiences
of meeting them after a long time.
I went to my cousin’s house Siva. Siva is one of the 10 kids
of his parents. If some of them had survived after birth, he would have been
among a dozen! Like all his siblings, he also did not have the bad habit of studying
well. He could not complete 10th standard. But, luckily he did not
have any other bad habits which his siblings had. He has been working in a
bank, the job he got on compassionate grounds once his grandma who had passed away
while in service in that bank.
Siva is currently living in a decent 3 bedroom house, much
bigger than the one he had tried to live in his parents place. His daughter is
studying in a well reputed college, clearly indicating her brilliance in
studies. She just entered plus one grade, she is already crystal clear what she
wants to do in future, Masters in physics. Siva was so excited to receive me in
his house and showing me around. I felt so happy for him and his family.
My next visit was to one of my uncle’s house. He was a
manager in a bank when I knew him at my age of 10 or 11. Those days I always
eagerly waited to go to his house. Big 4 bedroom house of at least 2500 square
feet in area, the type of food he would arrange for us when we visited him was
world class. I would not have been fed like that anywhere else. Currently he is
staying in a one bedroom house, hardly 300 square feet in size, not even one 6th
the size of Siva’s house. He was happy to see me, though he was eager to see me
off as quickly as possible, understandable. He felt more bad than I did, seeing
him in that condition. Unfortunately something went wrong in his professional
life, he just could not recover from that. His financial condition went bad to
worse. I felt sad for him and his family.
While the above two are living in urban area, there are many
in rural area too. I didn’t miss the opportunity to visit them. One my cousin’s
daughter had been recently married to a much wealthy family and she was also at
home when I went there. He made me eat whatever they had prepared for their breakfast.
Whatever fake excuses I gave him, including a bad stomach upset, did not work. It
did not end there. He wanted me to go to his daughter’s in-laws place. He
accompanied me in the cab I hired. Though the approach to that house was
narrow, he did not allow me to get down on the main road and walk upto the
house. Probably he wanted to impress upon his new relatives that he too have people
who travel by car. He made the cab driver use all his manoeuvring skills to
bring the car to the front portico of the house. Such a warm and curious
welcome received from all those folks. Luckily they didn’t force beyond a point
to eat something from there. Even if they did I couldn’t have eaten a bit. I
was so full!
The house of an old couple is almost 100 metres away from
the main road through a narrow pathway. They live alone in that house
surrounded by a pond and trees. Even if in the unlikely event of a heart attack
to one of them ( they are so happy and healthy, I doubt they will have a heart
attack at all in their life ) if they shout, nobody would hear. Seeing me,
tears rolled down from that lady and she said “No body from city visits us
these days, we are so happy”. She wanted me to have lunch with them, and stay
back there for a day if possible. With lots of pain, I had to reject her kind
offer and move on.
Then I visited houses of two old widows. One was living
alone in a good house. Her companion is just a dog. She had just returned from
her daughter’s place after a week’s visit. Seeing me, she did not know what to
do. She was so excited, moving around the house, explaining to her dog who I am
and how he should behave with me. Even she took her mobile phone to order food
for me! The other widow was staying in a posh, isolated house. Her son and
daughter in law, both go to work. She is alone in that huge house, of course
she also has a dog as her friend. Through some other source she came to know
that I was visiting her. She prepared lunch and waited for me, well past 1.5
hours her usual lunch time. To dine with me! As such I was not prepared to have
lunch for another few days, I had enough by that time!!
There are many more such people and houses I visited. Facebook
and whatsApp is good. They have their own purpose. But when we make time and visit
these relatives or friends in far off places, then only we get good perspective
as how we should live. How we should behave. I cannot forget the joy in those faces, when I met them
after a long time. It was worth every second of their company.
