The best hour and the next best thing...

The best hour and the next best thing...

India
Culcutta
Visiting a small village, four hours drive away of Calcutta on the occasion of a local friend's wedding.

Taking a stroll around the village I noticed this gathering in a small house yard and the older looking female gave me a very warm smile. Supposing it was a family reunion, I asked if I could take a photo and I was pleased to be also invited to sit and share tea with them. She was the mother, a widower, with her two visiting married doughters and their children. I asked her what was her life like all these years in the village.
- " I have very seldom been outside the village so far. But the best and happiest moment of my life has always been this one when I can sit and enjoy the company of my doughters and grandchildren"
- " And what is the next best thing you desire most?" I dared to ask.
- " To have my grandoughter married", she replied immediately, " For the time being I teach her how to cook and knit".

I left thinking, Is really that simple to be happy of life which is certainly not, or these people approach matters with a different philosophy of life? Also called by Gandhi, "the Indian way".
But, in anyway, the question remains. Is this indian way innate and indigenous or acquired and even imposed by relevant conditions and bare necessities of life?

(Film Ilford FP4 120,6X4,5 with Mamiya AF 645)