Taranjit
The greeting is a process. You don’t just open the door, say hello, and let your guests in. No. That is not enough. You greet each guest individual and hug each and every one of them. God forbid you missed one person. You will never hear the end of it. This will be held over you for life. That Auntie or Uncle will tell every person they know. Do you know so and so’s kid? They didn’t say Sat Shri Akal (hello) to me when I went to their house. Now that we spent a good 10 minutes by the door, my mom usually sits down with the guests in the living room, and my sister and I head on over to the kitchen quickly.
We quickly turn on the pot of tea that was already prepared with the necessary ingredients ahead of time. The faster you make it the better. Trust me. It is another thing that will be held over you for life. Cha (tea), the one thing that has to be made every time guest come over. You can’t not make it. It’s like an unwritten rule. You always serve tea.
In the meantime, you can’t just leave your guests waiting for the tea. That is a big no-no. So, we start to fill glasses with water or juice, depending on what they want. This will keep them over until the tea is ready. If you ever go to an Indian house, be prepared to be given lots of drinks and food. Even if you don’t want anything to drink, you will be given a drink.
Now here comes the part that my sister and I go back and forth over every time. Who is going to bring the serving tray with the drinks to the guests? We always end up compromising with one of use bring the juice or water and the other bringing the tea once it is ready. Loading the tray with the drinks is the easy part, carrying the tray across the kitchen, through the dining room, and to the living room is the hard part. You have to be extra careful not spill any drinks on the way to your destination, but you can’t be too slow because they will talk. Not while they are at your house, but when they leave. So and so’s daughters took so long just to give us some water. We drove 2 hours (usually an exaggeration) to come here. The least they could do is give us some water. And we do not want that.
You whisper a small thank you to God that you made it to the living room quickly and without any spills. Now comes another decision. How do you serve it? Do you just hold the tray in front of each individual and let them take the drink? Or do you set the tray down and place a glass in front of each guest? If I bring the tray to each guest, then I run the risk of an unbalanced tray. What if they all take a glass from one side of the tray, and the tray is unbalanced. I could run the risk of the drinks spilling on me, on the guest, or worse on the carpet. We can’t have that. By the same token, if I set it on the table. They might gossip about it later. So and so’s daughter had to place the tray on the table instead of letting us take our own drink. To be honest, it doesn’t really matter which option you choose because they are going to be watching you the entire time and they will most likely talk about it later, even if nothing really happened.
You quickly give the drinks and hurry back to the kitchen where you are safe from being intensely watched by every single guest. But then, you realize the tea is practically done and you will have to repeat this process all over again. Not just with tea, but with the snacks, too. Oh no!
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So many people can relate to this, its like this uncomfortable situation that is just never really spoken about. Fun little post that made me giggle 🙂
‘Now that we spent a good 10 minutes by the door’ I was laughing so hard! Isn’t that the case in every Indian house!?!? I could totally relate to what you have written!