I drink tea precisely because I love coffee. Yes, you read that right. I have a theory behind it. Let me just explain.
I stay in India. The land of chai, chaha or just cha ! It’s everywhere. It’s so much a part of the Indian ethos that once a Railway Minister found ‘chai in kulhad’ important enough to announce it in the annual budget. And of course everyone now knows about ‘chai pe charcha’ . A chai-tapri
can be seen at every gali-nukkad , especially in an office zone. There are also lots of tea-shops brewing .
But let’s face it, the cutting- chai , that over-brewed, boiled-to-death tea leaves along with sweet sweet milk which is practically at the threshold of basundi , served at the hygienically questionable road-side tapirs , wins hand down. It’s the concoction almost everyone swears by. Although everyone’s cuppa is different, it is difficult to go wrong with tea in India. Every household, every nukkad , every tea-house, has its own recipe, yet the neighbour’s tea is always good enough, if not brilliant.
That takes me to coffee. Oh, I love it!
Yes, we grow coffee too. But I think except the high-on-the-evolution-scale south Indians, we don’t respect it much. Our PDAs for coffee started with a certain cafe chain: a lot can happen over coffee, said its slogan. Indeed, a lot happened over coffee — except coffee itself. The American chain cafes have since flooded the urban scene, complete with their complimentary wi-fi spaces.
So where can an architect get a decent cup of coffee? At Udipi’s. Because coffee shops burn a hole in the pockets. Udipis and filter coffees are yet not so prevalent everywhere. I make good coffee. Well, ‘I like my coffee’ is a better way to put it. But I am so particular about the way I make it, that an everyday affair is exasperating. And coffee at other people’s homes should be unspeaketh. It is a sorry version of a brand of cocoa drink. For, making coffee is not everyone’s cup of tea.
So when my inherent finickiness filters down to my much-loved beverage, compromise is difficult. So I prefer a ‘good enough’ tea over sub-standard coffee.
I Love Coffee; Hence I Shall Drink Tea. I rest my case.
kulkarni.tejashree@gmail.com
