Shri Mataji talks with humour about London society & alcohol

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

i hope you enjoy this story and have a good laugh just like i did. If you know

Shri Mataji, it is very funny what She went through with London society and

alcohol. i love Her sense of humour, and also Her great Heart, and the extent

She will go to, to please people when necessary, like offering them an unending

array of alcoholic drinks, because they would not come to Her house, if She did

not offer them a variety of alcoholic beverages! But there is a moral to the

story also - it is not just about the funny side of people; it is also about the

eminence that alcohol has in people's lives, and its repercussions in society.

 

regards to all,

 

violet

 

 

 

Shri Mataji talks with humour, about London society and alcohol

 

" The great principle in the consumer society, in which all your choices are

carefully multiplied, so as to drain you of your money, is that you should spend

all your precious energy, seeing and being seen! The code of behaviour is

dictated, before you even begin to choose!

 

When we first came to London, we had no appropriate glasses or tumblers for wine

or spirits. We were told quite clearly, that nobody would come to our house,

unless we offered them a drink. Despite my uneasiness, and my natural distrust

of wine and alcohol, one had, I realised, to do it. So I requested my husband to

undertake the responsibility for this aspect, as I would not be able to do

justice to such a demanding task.

 

First he had to get a dictionary to read up all the details about wine and

alcohol. Then we realised that there were books and books written about alcohol,

and how drinks are to be served and what tumblers and glasses should be used. It

was a regular course of study! Then we got hold of a friend and took him with us

to buy the minimum number of glasses, needed to entertain about twelve people.

You would be amazed!

 

It was in 1974, in England, and we had to pay more than 900 Pounds to buy that

one set for twelve people, because it had to be very elegant and of a special

style. I was amazed that there are so many expensive kinds of glasses, needed

for different kinds of wines and spirits.... while in India, we can do with just

one silver tumbler for each guest! Moreover, for people who have had a few

drinks and who cannot then see anything - what is the need of having such

elegant artistically made crystal glasses?! It was a nuisance to clean them, put

them in the right order, and to remember which was to be used for what.

 

In India, as we have servants, my husband had never known how to carry even a

tray, but as I would not agree to do that, he had to carry tray after tray

upstairs, where our guests were sitting and drinking.

 

Some of the guests who were to come to our house lost their way and they arrived

for lunch at four o'clock. After that, of course, we had to serve them. The more

we poured, the more they drank (always from the right glass of course!) and

after an hour, they were no longer in their right senses. They said the same

things over and over again, but nobody was listening anyway.

 

I must admit that I come from a family which was always against drinking

alcohol, but I did not realise how naive and unprepared I was to play the role

of the kind of housewife I had to be in London, at that time. I did not even

know the colours of any one of these drinks! How was I to serve them? So I asked

my husband to do his 'religious' duty.

 

In order to assist him with this great task, he got hold of two Chinese waiters

who, as it turned out, came to us as a great blessing. They knew a lot about

different types of alcohol, and the manner in which they should be served. We

had to pay them quite a lot for their knowledge and expertise. They looked at

our stock of wines and spirits and found this to be inadequate for the number of

guests who were coming for lunch. They also made a huge list of other

requirements. My husband had to rush to the local market to purchase some

bottles of " Chivas Regal " whisky as well as some wines. The other requirements

indicated by the Chinese waiters were also purchased.

 

We now felt confident that we were well prepared. However, when the guests

arrived and the drinks were served, we suddenly faced a problem which, due to

our ignorance of drinking requirements, we had not anticipated. One of them had

asked for an alcoholic drink with Worcester Sauce. As far as I was concerned, I

had heard of a character in novels of PG Woodhouse who had the same name

phonetically; Wooster. But not a sauce. In any case, for our Indian food, we do

not need Worcester sauce and we had none in the house. Even our experienced

Chinese waiters, had not included this item in their list. What could we do? My

husband apologised to the guest concerned, but he was not amused. Eventually, he

accepted another drink, rather reluctantly, but as time passed, became quite

genial.

 

It is so difficult for me to understand why so many people who are at the helm

of affairs and who have to do so much responsible work for their country, have

this horrible addiction. It has become the one and only culture of the Western

countries, and unless you offer your guests this intoxicant, you cannot talk or

have any rapport with them at all. The trouble is, once the alcohol is there,

maybe all that rapport can become so much disconnected nonsense, even in

diplomatic circles. I feel that the spies and the traitors of every country,

must be using this choice of alcoholic drinks as a method of enticing people,

dulling their senses and getting their secrets out of them. Even for crude

bribery and corruption, alcohol is a very good vehicle. If you know a person

likes a particular type of spirit or wine, it is very easy to win him over.

 

Once we tried this experiment with the station master of our local railway

station. He was a multipurpose employee who served at the ticket window as well.

Whenever I went to buy a ticket, he would behave rudely on one pretext or

another. If I did not have the exact change, he would show his annoyance by

gesture or words. Perhaps he could not bear the sight of a traditionally dressed

Indian lady! We did not respond in kind. We decided instead to win him over. My

husband suggested that as we would not need the left over Chivas Regal bottles,

we might send a couple of them to the station master as a gift on the occasion

of some celebration at our residence. The bottles were duly delivered by our

domestic aide to the station master. He asked: " Was this some religious festival

of yours? " " Yes, it was.. " replied our man. The station master was delighted.

He accepted the bottles of whisky with great pleasure and conveyed his profuse

thanks to us. Next day, when I went to the station as usual, I was treated with

very special courtesy and respect as if I was the local baroness. I was amazed

at this total transformation. We continued to live in that place for four years

and we thereafter had no problems at all. The extra bottles which my husband had

bought had come into very good use, after all.

 

The key idea in modern times is that every day one must have something new.

There should be a change every day, perhaps even down to your wife or your

children, because a modern person becomes bored so very easily. Perhaps he has

to make up his mind so often between so many different choices that his brain

gets exhausted and ultimately, when he gets what he thought he wanted, he finds

that he is bored with that as well. This secret is well known to the

entrepreneur. He first tempts your attention with a vast array of choices, and

then he bores you stiff and creates more and more things for you to choose from,

because that is how he can keep his machines satisfied, and these require

feeding every day. He knows how to pamper your ego and to suggest that you have

the choice to do something, or to accept something. " (Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi -

book, Meta Modern Era - Chapter 2, " Choices " - 29/09/95)