Chalo lete hain ek Chai-break....uhmm how about coffee?

“Sun chottu ek cutting chai le kar aa...”

I have never been a ‘chai person’ on the contrary I have always been partial to the other hot beverage and substitute ‘ which is popularly pronounced as Kaffi or co-fee’ (coffee) in South India. Why my loyalties lie with coffee and not ek garam chai ki pyaali, could be attributed to being brought up in South India or maybe growing up on Cafe Coffee Day’s frappes and mocha chinos during college days. At one point of time I was a self declared coffee addict and without my hot cuppa I couldn’t even manage one late night during exams.

But as we move places, grow older, make new friends or move from college to work life, we undergo subtle changes. And suddenly the garam masala chai has taken precedence over hot piping coffee.

Galli ke nukkad par shetty’s ke dukaan ki chai peene mein jo tripti milti hain woh machine ke Nescafe ke coffee mein nahin hoti. (Aur Chai ke saath glucose biscuut ka mazaa alag hi hota hain. :)

Why chai-breaks are refreshing and so tempting because they are shorter in length (supposedly) than your lunch breaks. A separate slot need not be assigned in your working hours to accommodate them but they will automatically find their way into the timings. One takes it whenever he/she feels like it or when work gets too tiresome and monotonous... as someone says ‘ arrey chai break toh baanta hi hain” :). Chai breaks are the perfect time to catch up on gossip and gup-shup. For the smoking friends chai and sutta is not a bad combination too. And there is also no compulsion of having a full cuppa....barah number ki (1 by 2) and in bigger groups Choubees number ki (24 or read as 2 by 4) can also be had.

One cannot miss the aroma of the assam spl.and the flavour of the handpicked Darjeeling leaves in the tea parlours of Kolkotta. Move through the chaurahis and gallis of Charminar and you cannot miss the clinkering of the cutlery in which irani chai and samosa are served. And you move a little down south, madras spl.and filter coffee will equally mesmerize you in the Coffee Houses. The fan club for ‘black coffee - no milk’ isn’t small either across corporate offices.

From the bade saab in offices to the chachaji ki dukaan, whether served in china, plastic cups and tiny glasses why tea or coffee holds so much importance in the daily life one cannot explain. Intellectuals, movie buffs, political followers, erudite poets and sports enthusiasts all flock to the ‘adaas’ to discuss the lastesht news over your ‘ ek cup’. Even in apna bollywood when the hero comes to the heroine’s house for the first time, the heroine sings the song ‘ shayad meri shaadi ka,,,mummy ne chai pe bulaya hain’ or when the hero’s best friend comes home the Maa tells ‘ beta chai-nashta karke jaana zaroor”.

On one side if we have the ‘ Maa and her chai ‘ then on the other side also we have the love-dovey chocolate boy asking the girl next-door ‘out ‘on a coffee date. If we thought it was only about which is more ‘hotter’ (pun intended) then the buck doesn’t stop here! Whether iced tea is an equal match to cold coffee one cannot answer the question convincingly, as both are very different in taste, flavor and base.

The debate over which is better ‘chā’or ‘qahwa’ is never ending and it can go on and on...as long as people have different tastes and preferences.

As for me, yes I am a convert from being an absolute no tea person to chai-break why not! But have I given up on my filter coffee, cafe latte, cold frappes and cappuccino? Nah! why choose when one can have best of both worlds.