The feet, a good place to be

JS Raghavan 

DURING the halcyon days, when elders commanded respect from youngsters, it was customary to prostate before them when they arrived. It meant unmitigated surrender to their age, experience, erudition and wisdom, even if age might be the only qualifying factor barring others. Nevertheless, since old is gold, and the aged guest had been at the age of the one who prostrated and not the reverse, advancement in years tilted the scales in his favour. If this was not done, the guest with a short fuse may not take it lying down.

In certain sects in Tamil Nadu, the plurality in prostration would be valued more than a singular, athletic  drop-and-rise done in a flash, and furthermore, the obeisance had to be repeated and not aborted, till the guest was pleased by the number and condescended to touch and bless the head of the prostrator.

In those days when Alexander Graham’s bell had not begun to ring, people chose to drop in all of a sudden, without any prior notice. It was always Open House. Most youngsters, as a rule, had to undergo this physical exercise, bemoaning their fate, when they would have opted to curl up on the bed, dozing or dipping into the latest James Hadley Chase, unmindful of the elderly guest’s arrival. However, on the flip side, such obeisance served as a push-up exercise for young men who might otherwise be leading a sedentary life.

It was not unusual for a warm-hearted, avuncular elder who was paying a visit after a long gap, to offer on-the-spot cash gift, for the ones who will prostate with palpable enthusiasm. Youngsters in the family would scramble to line up before him for such a windfall, which would make an enjoyable movie-cum-snack outing a dream come true.

Elders, in those days, fell into two extreme categories: the ones who created happiness when they arrived; and the second, when they left. Some who arrived enjoyed vicarious pleasure by posing baffling mental sums like — ‘What will be the price of a three quarter measure of sugar, if the price for one and a quarter measure is four and a half annas?’  

Prostration was done only during the arrival of the elderly guest. And not at the time of his departure, which is forbidden, since it is done when one leaves for the ‘maha yatra’. Invariably, the one done at the place before his mortal remains are consigned to the flames will not be without any concomitant gift from the meritorious ones. They would have granted them upfront, in the form of their wisdom, knowledge, and more importantly, even genes.