Well Wishes

Sunday, February 07, 2010

My husband had told me about this family of a friend of his. The friend’s wife was expecting her second child anytime soon when we first went to their house in the same township as ours. I found them a cordial couple. I invited her to come with her son to the Mom and Kids Party that I had planned for my kids’ birthday, but she couldn’t make it as some guests had unexpectedly arrived at her house on the party day. Just two days after that, she gave birth to a baby boy. A few days later, after sending my kids to school, I went to her house on my bicycle to see her new bundle of joy. Her parents-in-law and co-sister were at home with her. I ate sweets and had tea with them. I felt very much at home talking to her mother-in-law and co-sister. One thing that prominently struck me about them was that everyone in the family thought the world about each other. I felt happy after coming from their house.


About a month later, my husband told me that his friend had switched job to a company in Gurgaon and came home to Pune on week-ends. I was surprised that he could manage to do that with a new-born baby at home. His parents, however, were staying with his wife and provided the much needed support. I invited them to come to our house with the new baby but the friend’s wife told me about a practical problem in doing so. Though her husband left the car keys with her, she didn’t know how to drive. Moreover, the chances of getting an autorickshaw in our township became dramatically less in times of urgent need…Murphy’s Law, I guess! I too couldn’t pick them up from their house as my husband took our car to office daily.


Then came our new auto-gear scooter and also the answer to the above mentioned puzzle – how to get our friends to our house? I offered to come to their house on my scooter, park it there, drive them to my house in their car, drive them back, ride my scooter parked at their house and come back home. She liked my idea but thought it was too much trouble for me to go to and fro in different combinations and drive an unfamiliar car. I told them that I was always up for trying new things and if doing so solved a month old puzzle, then why not?


Everything went on smoothly as per the plan – on a Friday evening, after dropping my kids to their skating class, I went shopping for some hot from the pan samosas, kachoris and kala jamuns for my guests, picked up kids from their class and dropped them home, went to the friends’ place, drove them to my place in their car, spent about an hour and a half with them showing them our newly colored and done up house, and serving them tea and snacks, then took them back and returned home on my scooter. Amidst this action sequence, I heard my guests praising the décor of our house, saw them enjoying the photos clicked by my husband and me, found them listening interestedly to the little details that we shared with them about the context and location of some of our favorite photos, and felt happy that they relished the simple tea and snacks served by me. While going back home, Auntyji expressed her appreciation for us and our home. She sounded happy and affectionate. I thanked her and then said to her, “It is your goodness actually that makes you see good in us Auntyji, for this world is but a mirror to who we are.”


It is so rare to find people who meet with you with their entire being, have their senses and heart open to receive whatever you present to them, have the genuineness about their appreciation for others and most importantly, have the generosity to offer sincere praise.