Chai!

Chai! Garam Garam! Close your eyes and think about it. Its raining, lush green all around and a steaming hot cup of tea. I read this post called Ginger a few days back and as I sat behind my glass walls in Goregaon, with the rain beating down hard, I craved for a hot cup of 'cutting chai' rich with ginger.

This weekend mom, dad and I took time away from this mad city and drove up to Lonavala. We stayed at a friend's bungalow up a hill in Khandala. Just at the turn of the hill was this little chai stand. This woman and her daughter with big smiles were boiling up a large pot of tea. "I want mine without sugar". She smiled and said ok. She took some ginger and smashed it and some lemon grass and chopped it. In a big pot she boiled some tea leaves, and threw in the ginger, lemongrass and some chai masala (cardamom), and boiled and stirred adding some milk and stirred it some more. Then poured the hot, fresh, without sugar tea in the tiny glass glasses that are made specially for all the little chai stands all over the country. Millions of them - Im sure are made.

BLISS. It was raining and we stood under the plastic covers of her little tea stall as she carried on making aloo vadas for her customers. Yes- hot tea with spicy vada pav. The perfect combination in all this rain, fog and mist. Ginger. I sipped on this slightly spicy, sweetly aromatic with the delicacy of the lemongrass leaves in the tea. Ginger. I peeled away and found this rich, verdant, fertile land all around me.

Soul of Water


I constantly flow
and of mysterious depths glow.
Silent – a power I know
stopped – powerful I grow.


I don a colour
every hour
when it is light
and can be darker than the night.


In passing, I change
desert into verdant range
in being the elixir
for everything living.


I was born,
to bear life on
rise, ebb, freeze, thaw; be
the very soul of life.

                                                                             -by Anand Vishwanadha

This gorgeous poem was shared by the poet himself. Do check out his book Moving On.

Anand is a poet, photographer and an avid motorcyclist who loves to travel the far ends of this country. He is also the author of the book Moving On- a collection of poems and writes a really cool blog.