With Janmashtami and Ganesh Chaturthi, the festival season is now declared open with a short break for the ‘pitr paksh’ holdback when ancestors must be honoured. And just last week, one of my maulanajis got married and I was invited to the feast in Old Delhi. Noticeably, every fest included the feeding of the poor. Or should, if it hasn’t struck us yet. For sometimes, it’s our turn to receive at the most basic level: the ego mysteriously vanishes and you “eat your bread with joy” as the Preacher says in Ecclesiastes. Speaking as a working woman who pays for her own life, I guess many of you know exactly what it means when your cook sends word she’s sick at the last moment. You have no time to rustle up anything yourself and you don’t get home from work until it’s quite hopelessly late. You could order in from anywhere but are too tired to bother. Besides, you want simple home food after the long day’s journey into night, dash it. Dispiritedly, you go for a walk, hoping the exercise will refresh you and your headache will go away. By force of habit, you walk first towards the gurdwara and whoops, there’s a crowd, so you’re about to go away quietly when the old granthiji spots you and flaps out crying, “Puttar, langar chak!”A scarf is tied around your head, you wash your hands and feet and sit down, the very last person to be fed in the langar before the kitchen closes, to a great meal of hot rotis, subzi, dal and karah prasad. It happens again: cook’s off, you’re late from work, no nice food at home and suddenly — it’s always en route to the gurdwara and mandir which stand shoulder-to-shoulder — someone leans over their garden gate and calls out as you prowl past, “Feel like eating a hot dosai?”You can laugh if you like. But though you may be rich in ever so many things and have loads of lovely friends, in some situations, only certain spells work. It seems most ungrateful to act cynical about these timely acts of grace. What comes to mind instead is this verse from the Gurbani whose “char-sau-sala” (four hundredth anniversary of installation) is being celebrated now:Saache sahiba kya nahi ghar tere/ ghar da tera sab kuch hai/ jis de so pave/ Sada sifat salah tere naam man vasave/ Naam jinke man vasiya baaje shabad ghanere/ Kahe Nanak Saache Sahiba kya nahi ghar tere?“What does Your house lack, True Master, it contains everything and only they receive to whom You give/ When Your Name is enshrined in the heart, Your Word resonates (and fills it)/ Says Nanak, True Master, what does Your house lack?”
