Chai - the tonic of India

My first chai in India was from a vendor in a park in Delhi while touring the Mughal tombs. An Indian man I had met a day earlier at a different tourist attraction and coincidentally met again at the park insisted on buying me a chai. We sat in silence and sipped our sweet milk tea.

I've had many many cups of tea in my life thus far. Bitter tea I hated and only drank when I was ill, Breakfast tea in the morning with my Irish boyfriend who had it shipped from home, Chinese tea, Hong Kong tea (very different by the way), and now Indian masala tea. But I have never witnessed tea being such a part of daily life as I witness every day in India.

I have to admit I don't really remember how my first cup tasted apart from milky and sweet. When my new friend asked how I liked it and then commented that we are in the middle of the park, so it can't be that good, I was puzzled, wondering - what's the difference between one milk tea and another?

Well, it's funny how the more you consume something, the more picky you become. Almost like it ruins the innocence of just enjoying something simply. Now I am officially a chai snob choosing a restaurant because of chai with the perfect blend of ginger, cardamom, cloves, black pepper, cinnamon, milk and a bit of sugar.

In India, chai is an apparent part of daily life. The chaiwallahs who are usually young kids walk back and forth from shop to shop with their steel container that carries glasses full of chai to thirsty shopkeepers. Men are heating this magical mixture on every corner of the dusty streets. Chai is at the forefront of almost every transaction I've had in India, whether I was spending a hundred dollars on miniature paintings (I'm sure I got ripped off), or five dollars on a room for a night. Chai is also a main part of India's social life. Families invite me in for chai as I walk through their neighborhood and after almost any strenuous activity (like touring a temple) chai is mandatory for relaxing and composing oneself. I have come to thoroughly enjoy taking part in this tradition. There's something almost medicinal about sitting on a plastic stool outside a tiny shop while watching motorbikes whiz by...

Of course, I have met some Indians who hate chai. They say it's bad for you or it makes people lazy and gives them excuses to stall productivity. Some say it's addictive. Maybe it is. But, for me, Indian chai is a constant reminder of India's hospitality and almost religious focus on relaxation.