Thursday, August 30, 2007

IRANI CHAI AND THE INSIDE ACTION

THE DAILY IRANI FIX

Like most Hyderabadis I cannot work without my daily fix of Irani chai. I have mine at the Adarsh Café near New MLA Quarters which is on the way to my office. After breakfast at about nine, the urge to slurp tea begins to build up and I try to hold it off until ten when I start from home to work. The short journey to the café is marked with eager anticipation of reaching the café and having the cup of steaming tea before you.

One of the advantages of being a regular at any eating joint is that the waiters are familiar with your order. So even before I settle down at the table in Adarsh, a cup filled with hot Irani chai is placed before me by one of the waiters there. I don’t have to order, they just know what I want. And one thing I like about the hotel here is that the tea is not spilt in the saucer and the cup comes neatly placed in the saucer which in turn is gently placed on the table and not banged down like it is done elsewhere. It is something that puts me in a good mood, hot tea from a spotless cup.

The first sip of the tea in the morning always tastes like nectar. I savor the chai as I sip at it leisurely watching the others in the hotel do the same. That done I kick my bike to life as the Irani gets into action inside jumping into the blood stream and merrily going round and round all day kicking to life my insides and keeping them humming all through the day until early evening when it is time for the second cup of the day.

At four rupees a cup it is the cheapest way to get motivated to work. In Hyderabad.

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