Skip to main content

Hospitality

Dictionary meaning

Hospitality -

1.the friendly reception and treatment of guests or strangers.
2.the quality or disposition of receiving and treating guests and strangers in a warm, friendly, generous way.

Indians are believed to be one of the most hospitable people. It may be true to quite an extent, but there are some elements which seem strange. Say the obsession with eating, or to put it in some other way, guest eating well being a surrogate of a good, hospitable treatment. This may be more visible in interior or 'traditional' parts of country where ofter the person who is 'guest' is supposed to be 'following' or 'eating' thing served by the host. Plus there are some unwritten rules like you need to be always smiling, you need to get along well with everyone irrespective of age, believe with XYZ rules and all and blah blah. To hell with what you believe in, to hell with what you like or dislike, to hell with what you are as a person!

It all reminds me of one line i saw in a recent movie "Ghee khilaana aapke hobby hai kya!". (said by Katrina Kaif in a movie where she plays a Indian-Firang babe, said to her family members in Punjab) Recently I happened to go to a janmastmi celebrations where they had a prashaad in the end. They had some 12-15 varieties of sweets. All of them were 'served'. They were not ready to take it back (hospitality obviously!) and i couldn't leave it (good manners + prashaad combo!). Alas, I had to eat all of them and be in anorexic state of mind for next few hours! And I know not what people who are so-called 'health conscious' be thinking of when faced with similar situation!

We often tend to confuse hospitality with 'forcing to eat' so that the host doesn't feel 'bad' and all such stuff. So I wonder whom are we hospitable to !
Labels:

Comments

  1. Anonymous9:56 AM, October 30, 2007

    Lol!!!

    Long back, I wrote a similar post, after visiting a couple of relatives this summer! :)

    you may want to have a look at it here: http://worldthrumyeyes.wordpress.com/2007/08/20/indian-way-of-showing-affecion-eat-eat-eat-eat-eat-eat-eat-eat-eat-eat-and-eat/

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nikesh Rathi10:54 AM, October 30, 2007

    Hey ... that made an interesting read!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Shop @ Amazon

Popular posts from this blog

Gunaho ka Devta

During last few days, I had a privilege of reading one of the most accomplished works in Hindi literature - "Gunaho ka Devta" . This was the first time I read a Hindi novel after being highly recommended by 2-3 different people. I was kind of compelled to read it after initial 15-20 pages which were largely in an unfamiliar territory of Hindi literature! It is a novel set probably more than 50 years ago, and is a philosophical cum love story. It is one of those books where I can't be sure about how I feel. It is an excellently written book ( ... or maybe it was the first time I was reading a Hindi book ... but probably this is not the explanation!) , with the entire spectrum of emotions thrown in generous doses. The scenes are recreated almost poetically, emotions mentioned perfectly. But at times I am tempted to question basic assumptions of it all. At times I am tempted to say that he is preaching many things which I don't believe in, which I find improper, but the...
4 comments
Read more

Om (Ctrl C-Ctrl V) Om

This is a case study in how to make a presentation or a project report in a B school. This is a study of how to copy-paste from various sources (at the same time acknowledging it) and presenting a complete package with some excellent glossy packaging! For example, the movie - Om Shanti Om had the basic template from the movie Karz. The main attraction was inspired from John Jhonny Janardan’s title track. There were generous doses of movies like Madhumati and Karan Arjun. Some traces of Maine Pyaar Kiya, some Rajnikanth movies, some Jeetendra movies, many 70s ki movies, many actors ka style and lives etc. etc. were present. Thrown in was some amount of nostalgia in order to emotionally connect with the audience. Some quotes were from various sources (The one mentioned 3-4 times was from “The Alchemist” –“ When you want something, the whole Universe conspires to help you realize your desire”!) And then all the ingredients need to be mixed in right proportion so as not to have an ...
4 comments
Read more

K-eediyot box

(Disclaimer - Please do not think that I don't know spellings ... my numerologist told to use the above spelling for eediyot and add a k before it, this will help generate more TRP and comments for the blog) Time 7 : 30 - 8 PM, 8 - 8 : 30 PM .... 10 : 30 - 11 PM Venue - Zee TV, Star Plus, Sony entertainment etc. etc. Figure this - A family drawing room belonging to an extremely rich business house occupied with a mixture of emotional and scheming characters - 1 saas, 2 bahus, 1 son (+1 who makes an entry unaware of what is happening), 2 random distant relatives, 3 random cousins, all mouthing dialogues that have earlier been said by actors ranging from Nirupa Roy to Rajesh Khanna, followed by a long silence, 13 camera angles for same scene (top view, side view, cross sectional view, lateral view, 45 degree elevation view) , flashbacks and memories that last few episodes, good people becoming evil, evil people actually being un-evil, rebirths, amnesia, a background score that often ...
11 comments
Read more

Fan-o-phobia

Has there been some thing that you are worried about lately, something that might not seem too important that has been troubling you? ... Or that the very thought of it makes you shiver, tremble with fear or puts in the fear of god within you? Well ... I am facing one such thing of late. Somehow I have developed a fear of the fans, especially in cases where fans are a relatively lesser height, usually which I can touch easily with my palms or even elbows ... and even the ones that I can barely even touch by my fingers. This has not been without a reaon though. Recently I went to a relatives place where there was this combination of a fan being at lesser height and me being quite tall. After taking a bath (yeah ... I do take a bath ... in summers at least!) I switched on the fan, and raised my hands to wear a T-shirt. And suddenly I found something hitting my left thumb, hitting it really hard. Before the signal was sent to my brain so that I could realize what was happening, I put my h...
5 comments
Read more

The city

The green fields disappeared, The landscape changed somewhere, And that famed skyline appeared Suddenly out of nowhere. The squalor began to grow, I could see people all around, The din slowly increased, and Tranquility was nowhere to be found The crowds then swelled, And, all seemed to be in hurry, But all I could see on their face, Was resignation and worries. The city arrived, said the signboard But what it said not Was, welcome to the jungle, Of lifeless concrete and rot.
1 comment
Read more