“The only man who is really free is the one who can turn down an invitation to dinner without giving an excuse.”
~ Jules Renard
I would like to create my own quote on similar lines. “The only man who is really free is the one who can get away without inviting anyone for important occasions.”
On both definitions, I am really a free man. Let me just give two instances and leave my readers to decide whether I am really free or not.
The first was my wedding. Except by word of mouth, neither my late wife nor I invited any one for our wedding. Since the function was held at my late wife’s home, her immediate family were present, but they were all my friends anyway. Other than those from the family, only a hand full of friends were present during the ceremony, primarily to act as witnesses.
The day after the wedding, both of us wrote hand written letters to our families and friends, and in my case, my then employers that we had got married the previous day.
The second was my son Ranjan’s wedding. His fiance’s father and I got together and decided that we will have a simple affair at home and follow it with a lunch at a restaurant and have a reception in the evening at a club just near our home. No formal invitations were printed and distributed and just a hand full of friends and close relatives were invited to be present for the religious ceremony in the morning and wider circle of friends were invited for the evening reception by personal visits or telephone calls, mostly made by the bride to be and the groom to be.
I had sent an announcement by email and letters to those without computer connection about the wedding specifically mentioning that it was an announcement and not an invitation.
There are of course many others who do not need invitations and come anyway whenever it suits them. One of our LBC bloggers, Padmum did precisely that and landed up at my place uninvited yesterday. She will therefore not be posting today though she is the suggester of the topic of the day.
And yes, I am very capable of turning down invitations for dinner without offering any excuses. I am known to be a maverick any way.
Now, I leave it to my readers to decide if I am really a free person.
I hope you enjoyed reading this post on the weekly Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where twelve of us write on the same topic. Today’s topic has been chosen by Padmum. The eleven other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order, Delirious, gaelikaa, Grannymar, Maxi, Maria SF, ocdwriter, Padmum, Paul, Rohit, The Old Fossil and Will. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. Since some of them may post late, do give some allowance for that too!
