Dear You

The Chai Drinker

Dear you,

If you've just settled into your seat with a garma-garam cup of chai, ready to read this, then I know you're going to smile when you realize that the topic of this letter is exactly that.

Chai.

I get this feeling that you're the sort who has a lot of coasters at home but never remembers to use any. There are traces of your cup everywhere you go...little impressions of your thoughts, your feelings, the solace you found that evening in your balcony as you gazed out at the cityscape. To think...one day, our traces will intertwine in the form of chai ring stains.

I bet your eyes search every lane for a little tapri serving chai. A giant mug, cutting chai or kulhad...Doesn't matter, you've had them all. They've all found home in your palms, on a cold winter's evening. To think...I've sat on a little bench attached to that very same tapri, on countless occasions before, holding that very same cup, telling stories you are yet to hear.

Are you one of those people who need tea early in the morning, on a train? Does the sight of little Styrofoam cups give you joy? Do the lush views outside a train window seem incomplete without the scent of Masala Chai?

We may be on different trains today. But one day, it might just be the same one. Don't forget to look around once in a while. I may be buying the very next cup of tea. After all, I heard the very same call of "Aye chai chai chai chai..."

You may have a favourite cup. It's probably brimming with stories. It perhaps has a story of its own. How it got that little chip. How it likes to reside on top of books more than shelves. How it came to be yours. I have a favourite cup too, with its very own story, just waiting to be told.

And to think...one day, they'll live side by side, on a shelf together.

Until then...

All my love,

Me