Drinking tea in India is a culture but it is not complete without addas, stories and good company. A recent discussion explored the many ways in which one can enjoy the rain with a cup of chai. C Varghese reports
The monsoons are regarded as the perfect time for one to visit the local chai-wallah, for a cup of steaming tea and maybe a mathi or a couple of biscuits. But then again there are some who prefer to prepare their own tea, and sip on it while paying heedful attention to the rhythm of raindrops drumming against windows. Whatever course you might adopt, most of us would agree that there is nothing like a good strong cuppa during the wet season.
Reiterating along these lines, ChaBar at Oxford Bookstore, CP, welcomed the monsoons with an evening dedicated to music, books and monsoon teas with an esteemed panel comprising of Yatindra Singh, Anu Singh Chaudhary and Rekha Sarin. They captivated the audience by recounting their memories of reading and listening to music indoors and the importance tea holds for them during the season of torrential rain.
Sarin recited her experiences of travelling around the country, in her attempt to document the exotic variants of Indian tea in Assam and Darjeeling. “The cyclical chai cultivation, there, has a very strong relation with the monsoons, even though the moisture content during that period dilutes the flavours of tea. The monsoons lend the colour to the robust tea leaves,” she said. A freelance writer by profession, she is famous for her book, ‘Chai-The Experience of Indian Tea’ which is critically acclaimed as the best tea book in the world.
Chaudhary, a prominent documentary film-maker, writer, editor and translator rolled into one, highlighted the simple origins of our now exotic chai. “People do not give due credit to the work done at ground level. Tea is the fruit of our soil and product of our workers’ sweat,” she said, giving voice to her perspective. She is an avid reader who loves nothing more than sitting indoors with a cup of chai and flipping through the pages of any book that catches her fancy, she does not believe in restricting herself to any genre. Chaudhary’s debut collection of short stories, ‘Neela Scarf’, had the distinction of becoming one of the highest pre-booked titles on Flipkart.
Singh, chooses every word he utters with extreme care, relishing everything that he said. “Tea and rains have a relationship akin to the effect music has on our minds, which is really calming,” he said, providing a very useful comparison for the chai non-believer. Habitual to Earl Grey’s distinct flavour and the high caffeine content, compared to most teas, Singh claimed that he consumes a cup every two hours to maintain his ‘inspired mindset’.
He swore by the medicinal qualities of tea, which he maintains was an accidental oriental discovery, while alleging that drinking tea uplifts our soul. A lata Mangeshkar and RD Burman addict, this poet, music and cinema aficionado calls himself a ‘Kansen’, an expert listener. He confessed that while he finds female voices more attractive than the husky undertones of their male counterparts, he finds the inclination of music towards the monsoon fabulous. He proceeded to play some evergreen Bollywood musical classics which incorporated the theme of the monsoon.