India prides itself on hospitality. No matter where you go and for how long, you are offered something to drink and then something to eat.
Tea is served regardless of time. Visitors are never sent home thirsty or hungry.
Tea is a welcome drink after water.
By the way, get used to being served water in a stainless steel tumbler. It is pretty cool.
Whether you are rich or poor, the guest is treated with respect and kindness.
A cup of chai in the afternoon along with a snack is the best way to welcome a guest.
An easy way to make that delicious chai is now available. No more slaving at the cooktop.
I know it sounds contradictory when you imagine the hot afternoons, but really, the tea does cool you down. Fighting fire with fire? Who knows! (This could have deeper lessons for life).
Havai Sundari gets served
In fact, one of my favorite memories is as a young 20-something. I was part of an outreach group to Asia’s largest slum, located in Mumbai.
Dharavi was featured in Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire. If you have not seen the movie, check it out.
Whenever I had some days off from my work as a flight attendant, I would visit this slum.
“Havai Sundari” according to my Driver’s License 1989
As soon as I came into view the kids and women would yell out, ‘Havai Sundari’ ‘Havai Sundari.’ This was the name given to me. ‘Havai’ is the word for ‘air’ in Hindi and ‘Sundari’ means ‘beautiful’.
They would invite me into the little room which functioned as a home. It was dark and had boxes of aluminum or wood that functioned as seats. Rats would run on the rafters above us. But that did not deter the hosts’ love and energy toward me.
Then one of them would run out and return with either a cup of freshly made chai or a soda, accompanied by Glucose biscuits (cookies) – a personal childhood favorite.
That cup of tea and the conversation around it expressed a language of love they had for me.
It crossed social and economic states!
Not only that, it serves up warm memories 30 years later.
In economically wealthier homes, you enter a home, and the first thing you are given to drink is a glass of cold water, mostly in a stainless-steel tumbler. This is wonderful on a scorching summer day!
As you get settled into the couch, you are offered a cup of chai and some snacks. The snacks vary.
In some cultures, they eat boiled chickpeas – also called gram or channa. In my mom’s Goan culture the channa is sprinkled with bits of coconut.
I still remember my grandmother making a snack every day around 3 pm for the 4 pm teatime. It was always high tea in her home!
The snack menu would consist of banana fritters, upma, sweet sooji, puran poli, shakkar para, or biscuits.
Here is an easy printable recipe for the banana fritters!
In some homes, you would have tava cheese toast. This is a delicious fusion recipe of cheese and Indian herbs and spices.
Think like a Mumbaikar
Depending on the time of day, you will be offered lunch or dinner – even if you just showed up at the door uninvited.
I cannot remember the number of times this happened in my parents’ home. In fact, one day I invited a couple of my American friends to stay for dinner after we had gone shopping.
They found this highly unusual, and when I asked why they observed that it was easy for me to do so since we had a house helper who cooked all our meals.
She was simply wonderful and would instantly create her magic with a spontaneous meal at a moment’s notice.
It is different here in my adopted country of America. Invitations to lunch, tea, or dinner are not really that often. And when they are, there is a formality to it.
I do miss the impromptu ones from back home.
From Tea Plantations to Mumbai
Another chai-related memory is a trip I took with my second-year Bachelor of Art’s Anthropology class to Shillong. We were going to meet the tribes we were studying.
It was a five-day journey by snail mail train from Mumbai (Bombay) to Kolkata (Calcutta), and then onto Guwahati ending in a narrow gauge train up the mountains to Shillong.
I love train rides. I love waking up early in the morning to the sounds of the ‘chottu’ (little boy) selling tea. His voice chanting ‘chai/kapi, chai-kapi repeatedly’ was a sweet-sounding alarm to my ears.
Kapi is coffee in street parlance.
However, what I noticed during that trip was the difference in the quality of the chai.
As we drew nearer to the foothills of tea plantations the chai tasted heavenly, even though it was served on a dirty railway station.
And on our return, as we neared Mumbai the tea tasted like dishwater.
The Chai Stall
Another memory.
Driving to Khandala or Lonavala, which are hill stations outside Mumbai, we always stopped at the roadside chai stalls.
They sold hot steaming cups of chai along with potato or onion fritters called bhajjiyas or pakoras.
And, also served these deep-fried potato cakes in a bun with hot chili and garlic chutney.
Washing it down with an equally hot cup of chai was an experience that was part of the trip.
I would imagine that today India’s teens like to eat out just like I did but with a difference.
Today, India has all the trappings of a global empire with its artisan cafes, fancy restaurants, and vegan, gluten-free eateries.
But I recall, there is nothing like a hot steaming cup of chai accompanying a spicy vada pao from a street stall. It is a feeling, not just food.
Would you try out any of the food and chai items? Let me know in your comments.
I love this!!! What an eye-opening article!! I will never look at chai tea the same ever again!! Wow, so much great food with the center of its hospitality.
Thank you, Major!