"Gift Culture" left me itching to give

We were traveling in Tamil Nadu with a large group of people that included extended family and acquaintances. The last leg of our journey was to last four hours and it necessitated certain preparations on my part. Aparna had just recovered from bouts of diarrhea and her body, as if to make up for lost time, was frequently wanting to be fed. So before boarding the bus I wanted to pack some food for her. Keeping in mind the heat and humidity here, which shortens the life of cooked vegetables or lentils, I picked up some plain boiled (white) rice wrapped in banana leaf and newspaper from a nearby restaurant.

We made a stop at at the temple town of Thiruvidaimarudur, not too far from the entrance to the temple and by the side of a large water tank that often accompanies temples of antiquity in South India. On three sides, the tank was surrounded by ordinary houses.

As expected Aparna was quite hungry when we got off the bus. I opened my little banana leaf packet and started feeding her morsels of not very nutritious white rice. My distant aunt, who was traveling with us, walked towards us and was appalled to see what Aparna was eating. With a certain firmness, she said, "Hema! Don't feed this to your child. This is not nutritious. I can knock at someone's door and ask for some sambar. I don't mind asking a stranger just so Aparna can eat well." She didn't wait for my reply. She dashed towards a nearby house and the next moment I saw her knocking at the door. The door was opened by a slightly puzzled middle aged man and a little boy. The man silently listened to the unusual request, sent word to his wife through the little boy and then disappeared inside.

We waited for a few minutes wondering what might happen next. I could hear my aunt mutter impatiently, "I don't understand what is taking them so long. I would have cooked a feast for someone who knocks at my door with a child in her arms". In another few minutes, to my pleasant surprise, the lady of the house showed up with a bowl full of hot sambar. She went on to say that she can get more food for us if we wanted. The sambar was delicious and Aparna quickly ate what she could and then Abhinav ate the leftover. Filled with gratitude, we thanked this wonderful lady and boarded the bus again. Still reeling under the unexpected generosity of this stranger, I gushed about the incident to my aunt. But my aunt didn't think it was significant. "We do this all the time, dear. This is nothing special." was what she said.

I noticed that I was now itching to reach out and give to others more than ever. Maybe "Gift Culture" is contagious.

-- Hema