Tea .. An emotional connect.

 Tea for me has always been family.

Dad and Mom were avid tea lovers , twice till breakfast and twice later in the day.

 When I was fifteen, I was entrusted a certain degree of autonomy in the kitchen. The very first instance of this that I remember is making my father pre breakfast chai in 1979. The recipe could not have been simpler, but it has remained with me since that day: a half cup of water, a half cup of milk, wait to boil, one heaped teaspoon of tea powder and finally a conservatively portioned teaspoon of sugar, stir. I still remember my father’s face, his happiness that his. son was making his chai, the sense of togetherness that existed in that moment. I also remember that he told me it was good; I do not fully know if that is true but it has stayed with me.

This, for a long time, was my only association with tea. I grew older and shifted cities and I would still make tea, but always for someone else .

My father used to bring home teas from various parts of the world. This one is nestle tea from the United Kingdom and so on. Being young and more rebellious than I am now (?), I refused then to indulge in the same interests as him, but over time we have bonded over the same thing. Many fruitful discussions with him were over a cup of tea whenever I came home.

When I stayed away from home in the hostel for graduation, it was the same, canteens and tapris filled with memories of conversations that can only occur as people bond over chai, or tea, or cha, or chaiya, or any of the other numerous names that it inhabits. Our daily routines were centred around the practice of visiting the local chai shop and our night closed only once we reached the night cap.

Soon in the late 90s I shifted to coffee. Coffee had more sophistication , but when I got the chance the Chai used to come to the fore.

The essence of tea has been for me making relationships, from my family to my friends to shopkeepers and strangers. So, what is it about tea that drives itself into us so deep? It is never the work-drink, that has always been the prerogative of coffee for that stimulating boost. But somewhere between tea leaves and the warmth of a freshly brewed cup of tea, I feel refreshed and somehow more in tune and concurrence with people around me.

Just as monks used to drink tea ( Herbal or Kawaha) to gain some perspective about a deeper truth in the world, perhaps that is what I feel when I share these bonds of mine with others; perhaps it is in purity of each leaf be it leaves ,dust green or flavoures and in the sincerity of conversation that we forge these bonds. (Which I now have at office in the last lap of my career).

Dad however stuck to tea and enjoyed his two or three cups even when he was with me.

Incidentally his last cup of tea at home was an hour before he went for dialysis on 7th March and never came back.

As I read somewhere

"If you are cold, tea will warm you;

if you are too heated, it will cool you;

If you are depressed, it will cheer you;

If you are excited, it will calm you.

We humans are like Tea, we don’t know our own Strength until we’re in Hot Water”