Storming The Tea Cup

The incessant chants of “Chaiii –Chai” with a peculiar blend of throw and pull transpose your mind to a journey and nostalgia. The tea vendors with their stall on feet have become the heart beat of Indian railway stations. The Indian addiction to this magical leaf is perhaps beyond the confines of geography and states. A cross country raid will fetch you similar constituents primarily, being presented in variety of ways. Kashmir will give you a Karha , Maharashtra will give you cutting Gujarat and Rajasthan their masal chai , Punjab will give you malia marke, Assam gives you the best of aromatic chai and tribal will give you a kulladh chai. “Atithi Devo Bhava” and offering the guest with some homemade Tea is the most prevalent courtesy protocol in India. India, as a country is a gifted drawing board painted with tremendous diversities in cuisine, clothes, languages, religion, architecture, landscape etc and still stands tall as a single unified nation with largest democracy and largest TEA producing statistics in the world. A simple and basic blend of hot water, milk, sugar and tea leaves cuts across the state boundaries leaving behind a common binding taste of national unity. Any sign of human settlement is mile stoned by a shack of chaiwala in the hinterland. These tea stalls however are not just a tea dispensing machine but a localized social hub where one can kill the stress sitting on the wooden bench learning a tip or two on country’s political landscape and inflation too. Equally interesting is to note the multitude ways in which we communicate with a cup of Tea. A morning tea is supposed to be biological in chemical property to trigger the inner bowels, the newspaper tea blends with the aromatic print to jet set your mind for info accommodation, the breakfast tea wraps your breakfast and office time - tea breaks improve your general awareness on appraisals, resignations, property and increments. Be it a corner room meeting, annual budget planning, month start planning, conference, training room..a cup of TEA gives a sense of tranquility and direction for “out of the cup” thinking. High profile business meetings in corporate colloquial are a HIGH TEA. The demographic connotation of Tea consumption also draws its parallels in the society. The young and charming sip on a trendy Ice tea, the women of today love to experiment with herbal tea , the black suited apple-ised and Tablet crowd goes for black tea and those belonging to the top notch strata (sans of all poverty) call it Power tea. With the onslaught of globalization and cappuccinos however, the basic construct of a cup of tea and its mass appeal remains relatively unshaken. The charisma of the age old formula of TEA lies in the fact that a cup of tea in whatever form still seduces you successfully to sail through time as long as you can sit over a cup of tea .For most of us, it is a physical break for various body faculties but mind runs high on caffeine and that too at a minimal cost. I still have to think hard where I have left a cup of tea for not liking the taste as my tongue happens to be only one part in the overall experience! Enough said for tea and nothing for Tetley, the largest brand of Tea in the international market. Thanks to Mr. Ratan Tata for bringing the Britain ki Chai to our aam aadmi in India. We may sit in best of the lounges of multi star hotels but will never forget the enduring taste of Chai and Biscuit (yes the dipped one) and chai pakoda during monsoons or Chai with stuffed paratha in dhaba ishtyle! We are indeed a cricketing nation (it also has a Tea Break!)

Storming the TEA CUP!