CUTTING CHAI

Photo credit: www.gaurangimaitra.com
Memory tag: Memories of tea from the Nilgiris, Assam, Tibet, Shillong jimbam and Jazz by the Bay listening to Louis Armstrong.

‘A drink with jam and bread? ’The lines from the musical Sound of Music instantly come to my mind. Tea has been a prelude to many a friendship. A particular one began early one morning over a large green generous cup served in a beautiful room with cool misty, pine scented breeze blowing in. Over many cups of green cardamom flavored cups of tea shared over travel, talk, manuscripts and things of beauty a friendship has evolved that is a lasting source of joy and strength. That is the magic inherent in a drink brewed from two leaves and a bud and called the drink of friendship by the Tea Board. I grew up in amid green gardens and tea plantations framed by the blue backdrop of the Nilgiri Hills in Tamil Nadu. As we turned off the main road, the aroma of green tea leaves being processed was something we always carried with us on the track that wound up to our home called Dakhinpat. The name was, as Baba would love to explain, indicated that this was our the home in the south and a tribute to the Vaishnav shatra in Majuli. He had belonged to the Assam cadre of then Indian Civil Service. Today many a time as I sip my evening cuppa, and watch the evening star rise between the silk cotton trees, things seem to have come a full circle for I now live in Tezpur in Assam. Last month, an old friend gifted me a packet of tea, grown in Korkundah in the Nilgiris, the home of our childhood days. Its bouquet vividly brought back memories of the blue mountains and the gracious elegance of our homes and surroundings on the range. In the Nilgiris, where a near monoculture of silver oak act as shade trees for tea, the gardens of Korakundah were bordered by magnificent rhododendrons, the equal of which I only saw again when I came to Shillong.

Tea like wine must match the ambience. On the windswept cold dry Tibetian Plateau, it is made with yak milk and butter to buffer the bone chilling cold. In China, the home of the Camellia sinensis, cultivated in highlands where the summers are wet and winters are dry, the high exotics are given their due in an elaborate and beautiful tea ceremony. Hand processed special black Oolong can cost almost the Earth for a gram. A few sips of jasmine flavored tea can mark the end of a Chinese repast. But large mugs or cups of tea are mandatory when friends gather for the traditional adda, especially in the Shillong winters. Add steaming hot momos to this and its very memory is a torture worthy of Tantalus! The kettle that pours out jimbam quenching tea in any corner of abode of clouds is its most famous trademark of fast food! This in any other avatar would be a complete misfit. I remember a particularly delectable hot cup at Cherra, with a smoky flavor that came from the pine log fire around which we gathered for warmth. I had a never to be forgotten affair with a tall glass of golden mint topped iced tea in my all time favorite place, Jazz by the Bay. An entire sea board of salads and sandwiches slowly rocked to Louis Armstrong’s Heaven “I'm in heaven, And the cares, That hung around me, Through the week, Seem to vanish, Like a gamblers, Lucky streak, When we're out together ,Dancing cheek to cheek!”