Guest is treated like God in India. This culture has now almost vanished from the cities where I have grown up. But it still lives on in villages to some extent. We had many first hand experiences of this during our treks. May be because we were a small group of 3 and could be easily accommodated in the big houses in villages.
Other thing was that 2 of us were Brahmins. There is great reverence for Brahmins in rural India. It is considered a auspicious omen if a Brahmin stays and has food in your house. Of course we always preferred to stay in temple or school veranda. (Generally every village has a small Ram or Hanuman temple.)
We were trekking on Shivneri to Jivdhan trail. This ancient route connected the port of Kalyan with Junnar on plateau. This route passes through famous Naneghat and then onward to Junnar. Guarding this route are 4 ancient forts from Satvahan era[second to fourth century]. Jivdhan, Chavand, Hadsar and Shivneri. These are very interesting forts. There are huge caves on Jivdhan and Hadsar is said to be almost hollow but it's caves are currently barricaded.
We had visited Bhairavgad and then climbed through Naneghat and now were on our way to Jivdhan. This is not a fort frequently visited by trekkers so route was bit difficult to find. Luckily we met a villager who was keeping watch over his cows grazing on plateau. He was from Ghatghar village at base of Jivdhan. He showed us the route and invited us to stay in his house that day.
Route was tough. Big boulders had fallen on to the steps and overgrown shrubs were everywhere. It was clear that not many people frequented this route. We reached top and had a look around. By the time we got ready to start back it was dark. We thought of staying in the cave but it was muddy inside and whole fort had a dilapidated look. So we decided to get down to village. We literally ran and skated down dried water ways to reach village before it was pitch dark. Still we had to walk last half an hour with the help of torches. We generally avoided use of torch since your eyes then do not get accustomed to darkness around you. But it was dark night and we were forced to use torches. And anyways we were not in a mood to look around for possible dangers.
Finally we reached Ghatghar. The man we met earlier had seen light from our torches in the hills above and he was waiting for us on the path leading to village. After reaching his home we washed ourselves. By this time his wife had prepared a dinner of hot bhakris and vegetable. Food was divine. I have no words to describe that food, only a heart full of gratitude and eyes that are suddenly moist as I write this.
After dinner we thanked them for food and had some discussion with him. He showed us a place where we could sleep. So we spread our mats and were asleep within minutes. It was a single room and his family and we slept at 2 corners in same room. Can you imagine three totally unknown persons sleeping in your room in a city?
when I got up in the morning I was surprised to find his son sleeping by my side clinging to me. I did not understand this since I am never very popular with children. it all became clear when he told us that the place given to us was there usual place for sleeping. So his son in half sleep walked over to his usual place and cling to me like he used to cling to his dad every night. This was akin to giving your double bed to visitors and you sleeping on floor.
We offered him money for food and shelter but he refused. This is the toughest part. You don't want to leave without repaying the debt at least a little bit but at the same time you are afraid that your offer of money could be taken as an insult by these simple folks. Finally we gave some money to his son as gift and left for Chavand fort.
Today when guests come to our house we give them our bed and sleep on floor without any problem. i think it is the legacy of that man that I am carrying on 30 years after our brief meeting and have unknowingly passed it on to my children.
I am repaying his debt to this day.
