Village hospitality

Eashwaramma was serving food to some very poor ladies who had come asking for food. There is no term 'begging'. 'Adukkone thinnedi', means to 'ask and eat', and is accepted normally. The hungry are fed.

I asked her later which community they were from. She told me, "If someone comes and asks for food, we seat them serve them. We ask them which ooru (village) are you from. Why will we ask which kulam/ jati (caste) are you from ?" The person who comes and ask for food is seated and fed and spoken to respectfully. Even in this poorest of dalit households.

Comments
 

Sridhar Lakshmanan This is an experience you will get in every village. When I used to work in deep interiors there were no hotels but food was never a worry. All you have to do is ask or hint but that was rarely the case. They will ask and feed you with the food prepared for them. You will meet at least ten unknown people asking you to have food. In later days for ecologin when we scouted for remoter villages we used to make friends with unknown people in buses and they will offer us even overnight stay.all free you can't offer to pay that is an insult.
Unlike · Reply · 2 · 23 November 2015 at 20:32

Aparna Krishnan Sometimes our going to 'help villages' itself seems audacious. If we could relearn culture from them, all would be well with this earth. While if we go to 'school' them, or 'develop markets' for them (which is all we are capable of doing), we are probably doing more harm than we can realise.