How to treat various types of guests!

In the old days, guests used to come to your house unannounced, at any time of the day or even late at night. You didn’t complain much, because in those days the facilities available to keep busy were limited: there were no mobile phones and only a privileged few boasted of landlines; there were no social networks or instant messaging applications; you had limited options for entertainment, for example, there were no 24-hour TV channels and live broadcasting of events or sports was very rare, a lonely movie theater in your locality, and the ubiquitous radio didn’t really bother you that much how I could listen from anywhere in the house, doing anything, and that also in your shifts you did the same as your guests. Therefore, he did not get irritated or upset even when the guests suddenly landed for lunch or dinner.

As modernization began to grip us with many options, you got busy all the time and decided that prior intimacy before coming is part of the etiquette, and if those rules were violated you would get irritated, embarrassed or even angry. Now, let’s not get into the activities that keep you busy these days. In this setting, we will be discussing our topic, mainly in the context of India, which is believed to have high hospitality values. And, of course, we will exclude from our analysis all those unknown people who treat guests with deference only based on their rank and file. Nor will we consider the phenomenon of house guests whose numbers are, anyway, declining at a very rapid rate thanks to modernization and business.

Depending on the nature of the visits, there are various types of guests who can visit you, but whoever the guest is and whoever the guest is, the basic approach is that you should be cordial to all of them, smiling at them even if you are irritated. , and you should always offer them a seat and a glass of water; for the remaining part of your hospitality, you are free to decide and, in fact, have a manual ready.

Many people visit you daily for errands, inquiries or to give an opinion or personal message. Technically, they cannot be called guests because they are not close to you or related to you in any other way. So you can entertain them on the terrace if you have any or in the chairs closest to the front door, and if the visit takes a considerable amount of time, you can offer them a cup of tea, not necessarily with biscuits.

Then classmates from your school or college-bound kids visit your house often for a chat or just for company. Here, the guests normally enter the study room where their children live. Now, the owner of her house should never call her son to enter the house for food that is only for him / her; everyone must be offered the same food and it must be understood that these children always come hungry. Your office colleagues, your boss, your teachers, your tutors or your doctors are always very appreciated and you receive them in the best possible way, often calling some of them to have tea and a snack at the dining table.

For guests who are not as close and not as distant, but come regularly as your neighbors, you can welcome them in the living room by offering them tea with snacks. However, they are not qualified to be invited to sit at the dining room table, unless they are accompanied by ladies who are friends with the ladies of their house, perhaps according to their handbook. For some distant guests that you know are just coming to pass the time, you can greet them on the terrace and send them off with a cup of tea at the most.

Your special guests are always dearest friends and closest relatives who you don’t mind dropping by unannounced. You make them sit in the main room and give them a welcome cup of tea first. Meanwhile, some of the guests may move around the house to meet their children, and the ladies who go to the kitchen to meet their wife. Everyone is then invited to sit at the dining room table for snacks or home-cooked meals, with tea or coffee.

A rare exception to such a manual might be some old friends or distant relatives who suddenly turn up in a zeal to meet and meet: some strangers who drop by unannounced on a referral or special job, and depending on the nature of their interaction, some of them might qualify to sit at the dining room table.

Suppose you yourself are staying at your relative’s house, things can go a bit wrong when the guests visit and introduce you to some of them, because naturally you are not very aware of the guest treatment manual adopted by that head of the family. . For example, you can take a case of mine. A guest, perhaps not so close or not so far away, visited my uncle’s house where I stayed for two nights. The head of the family seated him on the veranda, and some time later he called me to introduce him since the guest was well versed in my professional field. The discussion was going very well when I had to go to my assigned room to take an important call. As I came out and was crossing the kitchen, my uncle’s daughter handed me a cup of steaming tea. I went to the terrace for tea while I was eager to continue the discussion. My uncle looked at me horrified and embarrassed. He said,
“Ah…! Great! You already have your tea!”
It was my turn to embarrass myself by glancing at the guest who, fortunately, was busy with his speech or perhaps pretended not to notice anything.
I stormed in and stopped my niece for not entertaining the guest first. She smiled awkwardly and went back to the kitchen. Then it hit me: yes, this particular guest is not qualified for a cup of tea. However, I felt quite unwell and insisted on serving him and uncle tea.

Guests are an integral part of our lives and we cannot do without them. Very often, we wait for them; so often, we are so delighted to welcome you. In a way, we are all guests on this planet earth. Careful with this!