Tea to Chai - A long Journey!

On popular demand, I am updating my blog. I should have been busy studying or playing badminton, but then my literary juices like to flow when I try to plug them the most - OK, cheesy line!

Being in a hostel, you can either make your taste buds go to sleep or ask them to behave with a sense of acuteness, literally! The food will always suck compared to what you have been eating at home. Especially if you were destined to be born in a simple punjabi family in saddi dilli where food is not eaten but is enriched to be savoured. I decided to keep my taste buds awake and develop my sense of taste by increasing their work. And how?



Let us talk about Chai. Once upon a time, the proverb went - "India is a nation where rivers of milk flow." I am sure the saint of yore who said that would be turning turtle in his grave now. Milk is long gone and all India has is a Tsunami of Tea - another of the legacies left by the Brits. But we Indians like to evolve. We do what suits us to: 1) Rule and 2) Increase monies in our pockets. World wanted people who can change how their voices sound and speak - we gave them call centers. World wanted software - we ensured that our kids wrote codes even if they did not know how to wash their under wears in the colleges they went to learn to code (I have living examples nearby as proof to give weight to my allegations) Brits wanted tea, we gave them Nilgiris and the Darjeelings. The good thing is - we Indians become good at what we start doing, once we start doing it. So our tea, codes and voices go far and wide. Yay!



OK, back to what I was supposed to write about. Tea became chai for us. I want to proclaim that we stop using the word tea and start calling it chai, anyone with me? Let us face it guys - our chai is an entirely different concoction than the Brits like to drink in their oh-so-suave evenings. And Indianess brings in variety - doodhiya chai, cutin chai, adrak chai, saunf chai, elaichi chai, lemon tea, black tea, green tea... List goes on!



Those subtle tastes and changes that only our tongues could like them! Just had the hostel chai. Trust me, I like it. All varieties. Today, it was cheeni chai - overloaded with sugar.