I was anyways thinking about coming back early from Gurudwara Sahib this Sunday when I got to know that we were expecting Jasdeep veer’s cousin sister and her family in Khalsa House for a short visit. So that meant we need to do some preparations for hosting the guests as are normally done in any Indian House.
I am not really sure why do we always tend to change the look of the house and ours too when somebody is visiting our house. The activities started with bringing in fruits, milk and biscuits and namkeen from the market. Now people are responsible (read as wise) enough to not to be explained that you need to bring in stuff when you have guests coming in. Apne aap hi sab samaan aa jaanda hai bazaar ton and as expected it was Ramindar veerji who did job without any hint being provided.
So started the activity of changing the bed sheets, picking up the extra newspapers from the deewan lying in the drawing room of the Khalsa House and dumping them in an invisible corner. The shoes which had been unlucky for the entire week finally found their graceful position on a shelf in shoe rack. Normally breakfast layi daal wale paranthe hi chal jaande ne, but when you have guests coming in Paneer wale paraunthe taan hone hi chahide ne! ;-) The best we treat ourselves while having lunch is by spreading newspapers beneath the plates or max by sitting on the floored mattresses in place of sitting on chataai. But today we would be having lunch on new bedsheet with table mats ;-) Though it is a different story that we had spread table mats on the mattress which was spread on the floor! :D
Also as per normal hospitality rules, when we have guests coming in we need to find glasses which are at least of same shape and size! And the cups in which tea has to be served also should be socially displayable and should be from the same family. Otherwise normally in Khalsa House we don’t mind having mango shake in coffee mugs of all different colors and shapes. So were brought four cups which all were of same shape and color from Khalsa House 3!! Wow!! ;) But for bachelor guys that also means lack of variety, pata kiddan lagge bhi kinne kidde vich chaa paani pitta si te kehda bina peete chala gaya hai! :PAlso the butter was brought in two packs, the 100g one which could easily be cut into perfect cubes and served and the normal Jumbo pack from which the sangat would eat after the guests would have left. Jadd tak chamach naal makhan nahin kaddeya tad takk savaad kithon aane ne! ;)There is a table which has been unfortunate enough to be loaded like a mule with all that doesn’t find place anywhere else in the Khalsa House. It was a lucky day for it as it was covered with red bed sheet and pinned from sides to hide from the guests, the piles of newspapers, pamphlets, unopened mails and God knows what! And to further add to the beauty of the table we had placed the only soft toy in the Khalsa House – A teddy bear which now more of resembled a galli da kutta because of the dirt on it and the way its fur now looked. But you can’t expect more than this from a Bachelor’s house!! So this had to be acceptable! :P
While all this was being done everybody was enjoying the sudden activity happening around and the fact that the house was getting cleaned on an excuse of someone coming as a guest. The drawing room’s fan has been non functional for a while and we have been too lazy to get it repaired. So we thought of escorting the guests directly to the mattresses which were laid down on the floor in the hall instead of seating them on the Dewaan in the drawing room. You can make all these arrangements to look more sophisticated, hygienic, organized but the simplicity in you is bound to show its presence when guests finally pour in! ;)
And this act was completed by Jasdeep veer when Didi, Jija ji and their kid Parmeet had finally arrived. Just after exchanging salutations Ramindar veerji requested them to be comfortable on the deewan to which Jija ji responded “Nahin andar hi bathde haan araam naal” pointing to the mattresses in the hall. To which Jasdeep veer instantly added “Naale othe pakha vi chalda hai!!” I almost burst into laughter but had to control myself as no one else had noticed it happening! :PSo finally the saga ended in couple of hours and we all could come back to our normal state from being extra civilized. Not that the people in Khalsa House live in inhumane conditions or piles of litter around, but too much of organized stuff is kind of allergic here and we finally breathed as we could now heat the vegetables and take them in the same kadayi and pans in which they were heated to directly serve them into plates instead of first transferring them into serving bowls.
Not that I was witnessing this story of arranging stuff and making sure everything is spotless clean before the guests arrive for the first time. But every time I have to part of it I am always left with questions like why do we change the living standards for those who have come from almost same houses, leaving their houses in may be even worse conditions than ours! Why do people change bed sheets, take out new clean tables mats, napkins and liquid soaps while normal Lifebouys are the ones which have been in use till now and will be back on soap shelves when guests are gone!
Though the formalities and arrangements that were made were very very minimal in comparison to what would have been made had a family been a host! But even this one was enough for a Bachelors’ house to get shuffled completely to a state which was more of somebody else’s house rather than our house! Jasprit Veerji couldn’t resist himself and had finally made a mocking statement “Mainu taan ik vaari ghar dekh ke name plate dekhni pai gayi..sahi ghar hai na!”
