Reminiscences 02

Guests Galore, Uninvited Those were the days! Travelling was an arduous task. Hardly anyone owned a vehicle. No cars, no motorcycles, not many had even bicycles. Public transport was in its nascent state. Of course, there were trains running long distance to Mumbai, Madras, Delhi etc. But, to reach the Railway Station, you need to catch a bus, for not many could afford a taxi car. So, in my childhood, people traveled seldom. They walked, if the distance was a few kilometres. (My father who taught Malayalam Literature in a Christian Missionary High School nearly four km from our home, walked the distance and back everyday for thirty-odd years.) Hotels and eateries were few. So, people on travel drop in at the house of a relative unhesitatingly, to partake their food. I recall that we used to have many such uninvited guests. When we had such guests at most unexpected hours, my mother would run to the backyard to pick a few ocre or egg fruits or lentils to prepare an extra dish for the guest, albeit uninvited. Of course, curds and buttermilk were essential ingredients, and were abundant. Same with milk (for coffee) , butter and ghee too. She will reluctantly dig into the stock of eggs she has stashed away for her children too, if the guest was important. In those days, organised poultry farming was rare and eggs were not sold in the shops, at least in our village. Every household depended on their own chicken farm of a dozen or so hens for supply of eggs. We had too. There is a saying in Malayalam: "Guest, like rain, who drops in at dusk, shall stay for the night." (സന്ധ്യക്ക് വന്ന അതിഥിയും മഴയും രാത്രി തങ്ങിയേ പോകൂ.) This used to be quite true in those days. Guests, of course, had no choice and rains, on their own volition. But no longer.