Indian tea. Chai. Available at every street corner. Well before the sun shows up. To long after he has disappeared into the Arabian sea !
It doesn’t take much to get this going. Tea powder. Loads of milk. Plenty of sugar. Traces of ginger. And voila, theres this ‘chai’ ! And as the sugar coat courses the alimentary canal, a strange energy pervades. Usually. Placebo or otherwise. That is fact.
Many have romantically described the humble tea as some kind of a ‘least common denominator’.
For everybody has tea. From the stock broker who makes a million as he twiddles his thumb and the slum dweller who makes an inconsequential sum amount after heaving his whole body and lifting inconsequential construction equipment.
Everybody has tea. From the office goer to the street side hawker. The college professor to the cop. Thugs to theologists. The player to the proctor.
The tag of ‘least common denominator’ seems to fit in perfectly.
Of course, the tea is served in the glass tumbler ! So much part of our tea drinking routine. So much so that the flavour of the tea also seems to come from the glasses that hold the tea.
Washed many times over in a day. Refilled as many times. Perhaps more ! The tea glasses are an integral part of ‘chai’ ! Adding their own twang to the tea.
But imagine. Imagine you worked in an office some distance away. Or at some obscene height in a construction site with no lifts ! Ordering tea in a glass is impractical.
Worse ( & more probable) if the vendor knows your overdue amount on the credit card and is doubtful of the return of the tea glasses…
Tea comes in a polythene bag, with plastic cups. Home delivery !
The same tea. With Tea powder. Loads of milk. Traces of ginger. Sugar coated. But in a plastic frame ! It may not have the glassy feel. Its still tea. Offered with happiness.
The next time your taste buds take to the sugar and milk like a first time MP making his first swindled million, take a moment to savour it more !
Popularity and preference sure point to tea power. Tea brings alive any discussion. On any topic. Business and recession. Life and culture. Body and fitness. Anything and anything at all.
Like the other day. An insipid discussion was in progress. About the important part plastic has begun playing in our lives. Insipid. Until the time the tea arrived. Brought from the local corner tea store.
In some time, we sipped tea. Out of a plastic cup. Poured out of a polythene bag ! You bet, there was a different ring to the discussion.
The group ranted and raved about plastic.
My mind was elsewhere though. The flavour of human ingenuity underscored the flavour the tea! Or plastic for that matter.
Tea. The most ubiquitous.Most drunk liquid in the world, after water. Coffee is like ‘ Lord Sri Ram’; some one said. It allows no other mixture. Where is Tea , is very much like ‘ Lord Krishna’. Compatible with Ginger, Elaachi ( Cardamom ? ) , Chocolate powder, and many other additives.
I feel sad for the plebian and proletariat classes ; who were culturally bulldozed by 600 years of foreign rule. Even 100 years ago, their breakfast used to begin with cold rice, some pickle and onion and cold rice with butter milk and used to go to their farm. Now, they eat a plat or 2 idli, have their chai, light their bidi s and begin their work-day. When body resistance gives away in old age, they end up in Govt. hospitals, which are real hell for the living and the dead.
Local, ethnic food items ; milltes like Raagi, Jowar-Roti, are on the verge of extinction.
If every middle class person starts the day with Bread and Eggs, you can’t make out whether a person is from Selam or Siliguri.
( I think I deviated from the main topic. Let me take a Tea break ! )
tea – in glass, plastic & kullad, tastes different in all three; but always refreshing..a must for me to keep me going, all day..in those pocket money days, time decided the tea joint..a month beginning – 35 Rs. tea at tea centre, and month end – 3.50 Rs. tea road side n exam time – college canteen..
oh I am making a cutting chai for myself now :))
oh wow, never seen tea is a plastic bag before!
I am not normally a ‘tea drinker’, but for cutting its yes. Is that strange or wot.
Indeed the cutting chai is the least common denominator … nothing like a discussion over cutting chai.
When the Boy and I moved into our first, we did not have a stove nor a gas connection. For the first three -four days the Boy bought home tea, coffee and Pohe in plastic bags like these. 🙂
But the plastic cups are no good. You dont get a good grip. I ended up spilling the coffee or soiling my clothes…
Oh Kavi, you’re pulling at my core with this one! As with so many… How I miss a hot smooth creamy sweet chai tea.
And you are absolutely right, the cup we drink from can have such an impact. The way it sits in the hand, the way it cradles the tea. The texture of the rim on our lips.
Swoon.
I love how you’ve gotten to the core of humanity… with a short discourse on tea. Bravo.
When I was in Tibet, they kept offering milk tea. Is that like chai tea? It didn’t taste like the chai tea we drink at Starbucks..LOL
I prefer expresso, and NEVER in a plastic cup!~
Did you hear about the ‘ Buddhist Tea Ceremony’ ? It’s an ancient practice in Japan. Prevalent even today too. The monks ought to maintain the present-moment awareness , moment to moment, right through the ritual. From Tea making through to washing of cups and kettle. Their Tea is devoid of milk ( Vegans, you see, the Buddhist monks ; because milk is not vegetarian product because it’s not a plant extract).
I remember Master Thich Nhat Hahn describe in one of his books : ” Present Moment – Wonderful Moment” ( certainly worth reading).
Then, you will see a sage / monk / an enlightened Savant in every Tea drinker !
chai cutting in glass cups ..thats the only way to go for me!!
Tea, never had it till my early twenties, when it became an energy source after bone weary long shifts. Over here on distant shores tea making is so very different, a literally watered down version which the mind struggles to accept as the Tea.
ha! Kolkata public like their tea in ‘bhands’…small earthern pots shaped like glasses! And, the taste of the mitti mixed with their tea! And afterward, the simple strange satisfaction of flinging the bhands onto the side of the footpath or in the wastebaskets, cracking them into small pieces!!!
Footpath teas is the best…yes, even the high-tech white collar crowd agree with that after their footpath pav bhaaji or chicken chowmein!!!
An externally darkened
alluminium
dekchi
boiling angrily
some water,
with attitude
and noise,
on a kerosene stove.
Some leaves
dedicating their aroma
to the erupting water,
sweetened with
some sugar,
all awash in
the milk
of human kindness,
as
the corner chaiwalla
gets operational
at dawn.
Opaquely clear glasses
waiting for
the nectar to pour;
he lifts and strains
the bronzed, gingered
cardamomed nectar
and pours it
cutting the stream
into two glasses…
Cutting chai,
one always shared
in two glasses,
and some smiles
shared with the
chaiwallah
as the sun appears on the scene
demanding his share….
chai in kulhads through the train window is the thing for me, never like the glasses..the polypack was very new..had seen water being had that way but never chai!!
wow a post on CHAI ! Me to loves chai and specially in the kulhad 🙂 Earlier,while a kid,it was known myth that tea consumption makes your skin go dull and dark…bah !
I drink tea 2 times a day and it refreshing ! While in office and on a specially busy day this chai helps me be on my toes and work efficiently..now call it psychological or whatever…bottom line is I love Chai 🙂
I tested tea only when I was 16 years old. I was working in a slum area and I realized that tea was the easiest and cheapest thing people could easily offer me. Because of all this, I am not a ‘Tea Lover’ but consume tea at times just because there is nothing else to consume.
I always wonder how you are able to deal with ordinary subjects in such an extra-ordinary manner.
Cyber gypsy : I am not sure of the diversion. But you seem to have reached a new destination indeed !
🙂
Neha : The college canteen is a different place altogether ! Tea rocks ! 🙂
Bodaat : 🙂
Kevin : Nothing indeed like it ! nothing indeed ! 🙂
G: The boy indeed seems to have got to your heart through the alimentary canal ! Atleast i can see the attempt ! 🙂
So, it seems you are not completely unfamiliar to this as i was ! hmm !
Christine : thank you !!
And yes. The rim sitting on the lips part was left rather uncovered by me ! 🙂 thank you !!
Lou : Starbucks isnt here ! And i a m not sure what they offer in Tibet. But on another note…you’ve been to Tibet ! wow !
Anon : Ooh ! yes. I have indeed read about the tea ceremony. but i wonder how they would do it with a plastic bag ! 😉
Rush : Glass Cups !?! Are you talking of ‘glasses’ or are you talking ‘cups’ ? thats the other thing that i have noticed here.
the cup made of glass is still called glass !
Macha : Really ? You didnt drink tea till your twenties ! Macha, come on ! 🙂
And of course what they offer you over there…. that is not Tea !
Roshini : The footpath offers delicacies that 5 star comfort just cannot !
And these bhands i have seen. In Cal. Many times. Always wanting to soak up more…
And chicken chowmein…. oooh !
Ugich Konitari : Thank you indeed. Lovely lines. And the sun demanding his share was the crown on the jewel.
The opaquely clear glasses occupied me for sometime !!
Thank you once again !
Sujata : I guess we are evolving ! In all directions. The kulhads are giving way to plastic ! 🙂
Nu : Only twice ? Come on ! 🙂 I too am not sure of the psychological whatever ! I drink tea. I like tea. There isnt much else ! 🙂
aativas : I wonder what made you wait that long ! Maybe starting earlier would have changed perspective ! 😉
Onkar : 🙂 I guess i am extra-ordinarily ordinary ! 🙂
Thank you !
Cyber gypsy : I am not sure of the diversion. But you seem to have reached a new destination indeed !
🙂
Neha : The college canteen is a different place altogether ! Tea rocks ! 🙂
Bodaat : 🙂
Kevin : Nothing indeed like it ! nothing indeed ! 🙂
G: The boy indeed seems to have got to your heart through the alimentary canal ! Atleast i can see the attempt ! 🙂
So, it seems you are not completely unfamiliar to this as i was ! hmm !
Christine : thank you !!
And yes. The rim sitting on the lips part was left rather uncovered by me ! 🙂 thank you !!
Lou : Starbucks isnt here ! And i a m not sure what they offer in Tibet. But on another note…you’ve been to Tibet ! wow !
Anon : Ooh ! yes. I have indeed read about the tea ceremony. but i wonder how they would do it with a plastic bag ! 😉
Rush : Glass Cups !?! Are you talking of ‘glasses’ or are you talking ‘cups’ ? thats the other thing that i have noticed here.
the cup made of glass is still called glass !
Macha : Really ? You didnt drink tea till your twenties ! Macha, come on ! 🙂
And of course what they offer you over there…. that is not Tea !
Roshini : The footpath offers delicacies that 5 star comfort just cannot !
And these bhands i have seen. In Cal. Many times. Always wanting to soak up more…
And chicken chowmein…. oooh !
Ugich Konitari : Thank you indeed. Lovely lines. And the sun demanding his share was the crown on the jewel.
The opaquely clear glasses occupied me for sometime !!
Thank you once again !
Sujata : I guess we are evolving ! In all directions. The kulhads are giving way to plastic ! 🙂
Nu : Only twice ? Come on ! 🙂 I too am not sure of the psychological whatever ! I drink tea. I like tea. There isnt much else ! 🙂
aativas : I wonder what made you wait that long ! Maybe starting earlier would have changed perspective ! 😉
Onkar : 🙂 I guess i am extra-ordinarily ordinary ! 🙂
Thank you !
Tea is awesome. My day doesnt even begin till i have had my fill of tea.
I had tea poured out of a polythene bag some time back, and was quite astounded. Had never before seen tea delivered in such a medium. Ingenious indeed!