Chai pe charcha

 Today happens to be the World Tea Day. On such a special day, chai pe charcha to banati hi hai! Absolutely perfectly in order. Like the morning cuppa that sets the tone of the day. The morning cuppa for most all people is like begining the day with a picnic, it is often said.  

 Well, actually, I must confess that I am a coffee person. A sip of the divine drink, perfectly blended, literally makes the morning heavenly. I do drink dark coffee. For sure.

 Coffee is such a Southie drink by now.  The lovely aroma of home ground "kapi", percolated in the special decoction appliance, that pervades typical "Tambram" houses, can energise any and every wor(l)d weary travel vlog scribbler.Tea, on the contrary, has a more chequered colonial history. Yet each to his preferences!

Tea, too, is no less rocking.  The morning newspaper, with the morning cuppa, would be the elixir of life for many. In brief, where there is a cup of tea, there is hope, health and happiness, right? 

There  are so many varieties of tea, too. Sanju had bought for Aai a unique rose sprinkled tea powder from Munnar. I used to make that tea only for her birthday on March 19, and on the 'Holi' day, her birthday according to the Hindu calendar. Now only the scented powder in that lonely bottle remains, alas!

Aai  loved her morning cup. So regular was she with the first cup that our erstwhile Bai used to make it a point to reach our home at 6 a.m. to 'partake' of it. Aai enjoyed her tea, but she did not  discard the wastage, either.  It would go to the potted plants that thrived a la Jagdish Chandra Bose effect.

Papa never drank tea. He was basically a milk person who would occasionally enjoy a coffee, not the instant one, but the typical Maharashtrian concoction with oodles of sugar and cardamom powder. And yet he always got special tea leaves/ tea powder for her.

Well, their basic likes that would begin a typical day were so very different, and yet their togetherness was perfectly blended, like the ideal tea with the right quantity of tea powder, dash of lemon grass and ginger, milk and sugar. All the tastes,  sugary sweet, hot and spicy like the ginger and lemon grass, bitter like the boiled tea leaves, wholesome like the right quantity of milk, all the ingredients uniquely blended in boiling hot water. Like life itself!

Pratima@ Blake saw the universe in a grain of sand. Why not find the eternal life in a tea leaf?