I got a bit lost. I had taken a walk and ended up who knows where. To my rescue who came walking there? It was the father of a family I had befriended. He always called me ‘Amma’ and told everyone about me having rented from his son, and who knows what else in his Tamil language that I didn’t understand. He was very surprised to see me and invited me in his broken English to visit with his son’s wife who lived just around the corner. He always said my son’s wife. He never said her name. So he took me to their home – and right away introduced me to the neighbors telling them again, Amma rented from his son, holding his folded hands over his head thanking for the blessing.

I was invited in and took a seat in the kitchen. I then was offered a variety of snacks and other goodies and always said ‘no’ because I did not want to inconvenience the lady of the house. She explained that it is a custom to be offered some food or drink when one for the very first time visits an Indian home. I then took a little sweet. Everyone was happy.

(C) 2015 Udaysree Nithyananda – All Rights Reserved.
Excerpt from ‘ARUNACHALA – Living in the Foothills of a Sacred Mountain in South India’