IF EVER there was one thing absent at the dinner table during the earlier years up till the nineties, that would have surely been the mobile phone.
In those days, even the mere idea of getting up to leave one’s meal behind just to answer a casual phone call was frowned upon. Unless one was either a doctor, police, or an official who needed to be informed right away, one had better stay put.
So, being the strict no-no back then, there were only a few acceptable reasons not to eat your vegetables. Seriously, one could say that the generation that ruled back then had Victorian-level of strictness when it came to manners at the table and at home.
As if to prove a point, telephones back in the day were either nailed to the wall or permanently limited to a specific table or space.
In fact, in some houses, a special table was set for the phone so that they were never ever placed at a dinner table. That had been almost like an unwritten law, and the strictest implementers, at least in most households, had been the parents.
An old aunt used to say, the practice was wrought with meaning; it had no place at the table where one enjoyed God’s sustenance and blessings.
Nowadays, all it takes is a buzz or vibration from that tiny thing called a mobile that’s conveniently tucked near our plates or inside our pockets, and that is enough to send most of us in a frenzy, with the subconscious softly egging with a hypnotic command, “you have got to answer this!”
Incidentally, it is always quite funny when, during a meal, you would notice someone abruptly standing up, putting a mobile to his ears, and self-importantly proclaiming, “Sorry, I have got to take this!” and then strutting away, as if they were already saved by that excuse.
A case of ground control to Major Tom perhaps?
While today, some insist on “No phones at the table” policy, they are sadly, a rare breed.
To add, if you told your kids today that your childhood had been cellphone-free and that you had no Internet, they would, after taking silent pity on you, refer to your time as some dark ages or something.
Looking back now, one thing I know and appreciate deeply enough is having had the experience of those lazy evenings at dinnertime, when we were never bothered with interrupting calls or messages.
There might have been times when a playmate had come and visited us at supper, but those were rare. Even then, there would always be a commanding voice-over that roared like thunder to proclaim, “Finish your food!”
With that, everything is put back in place and all is right again with the world.
