Tuesday, June 16, 2009

My Obsession for Tea!

This is a topic on which I can write for the rest of my life, unless I consider quiting TEA consumption. Again the later is least possible from my current rate of consumption or the blind obsession. My history of TEA consumption is a dangerously telling tale. My warning: Please don't try this at home!

The first occasion: It was a fine morning, calm and pleasant . It used to be a burning welcome to my day otherwise. That day was different, really unusually pleasant for a July morning, and I bet I wasn't willing to wake from bed. I had no clue of what was going around me. There were guests at home, but no I wasn't going to wake up today (I told you it was an unusual day!). My parents sometimes debate as to who brought me the first cup of tea, they throw blame on each other as usual. But I am pretty sure my mom was the culprit. :D My uncle had to go back to work and wanted to meet me before he left. My mom got me the cup of tea and I woke up mostly because of the warmth of the TEA cup.

Season Ticket: I had tasted tea very early (I aged 11-12 back then. Okay, comparatively early!). But it took me 2-3 years more before I became serious about it. I was in 9th class I think, and I had an exam I was scared to attend. The reasoning is the usual "I don't know anything!" stuff. I woke up early morning (4 AM) and grind well before I went to school. I did well in the exam, which sort of gave me the license to consume more tea under the guise of studying early morning. I never realized that I was buying the season ticket for Tea. From then on I never stopped.

Canteen @ CVR. Our college didn't boast of the finest of canteens that anyone has seen. But it was a decent place to hangout for us all. I can't exactly recollect my daily dosage but I remember I used to take tea from Ramesh (canteen wala) daily early morning, then after the first hour, at lunch, at 3 PM, and sometimes at the end of sports session in the evening. The reference to Ramesh is important here. He used to get us tea, samosa off-the counter as well. How many outside our batch know this? Thanks to Chetan (509), Phani (Uncle, 532), Amarnath (Katharnak, 505) I drenched in tea all day long. :-)

Coffee Shop @ IIIT Hyderabad. This is one place I wouldn't forget for various reasons. But one certain thing would be the double tea that is available there. Never before had I got the opportunity to consume tea in that quantity. Bloody hell, it is just a machine made tea. So what ? It is tea.
Today some of my friends and definitely my family members are not allowing me to consume tea. Sadly for my family, I won't get up without a tea. :D
They just can't stop me. By now I have even consumed 3 "double teas" consecutively, though just once.

Okay but why did I write about this ? Just for fun. I had nothing better to do. And I have been pondering about this for a while, so why not ? ;-)

6 comments:

Romanch said...

It seems to be a love story between you and tea. :P

You made me remember my obsession for coffee. I used to have "double coffee" after every lecture. Un/Fortunately now there is a coffee machine just next to my room.

Unknown said...

hey rahul i think i know very little abt u yaar..coz i didnt know tat u wer a very gud writer, i didnt know abt ur papers published..but dis one dear i can say for sure tat i knew abt this obsession of urs..remember durin school days wen u used to cum to my home d first thing u used to ask was..mini tea bana de..he he :)

Raul said...

@ Romanch : Yeah, I think the double tea started with one of those boring lectures. Must have been PR, I used to sleep a lot during the course, everyone does. :D

@ Mini : I know da. I can't forget it. There is another incident to share. I am so helpless when it comes to tea that once my friend's (bon) mom made tea for us and by mistake added salt instead of sugar. Well, it didn't seem to matter. I gulped almost half the cup and then realized something is not very right there.
Unfortunately, aunty still feels bad at the incident though we laugh over it each time. :-)

Anonymous said...

Well since i have came to hydbd.. AP i mean, 1 of the things i miss the most here is the tapri wala's tea (We used to call them mama ki tapri.) u seldom get that 'tapri wale ki chai' in IIIT ... what you end up drinking is the machine made "double" tea :( . It just doesnt have that human touch so importnt in the making of tea.

Raul said...

@ kushal: True man. So much! It is just that it is hard to get man made tea here. When I go home (which I do regularly now), I really enjoy making myself a cup of tea. And I really think I am one of the better chefs when it comes to tea. Of course I am privileged, I can go home frequently.

S said...

:))