HOT TEA ACROSS INDIA Rishad Saam Mehta graduated as an electronic engineer from Bombay University and is a travel writer and photographer. He lives in Mumbai and is especially fond of road trips, adventure sports, history and food, all of which tend to feature in his travel stories. P H T A I ‘Hot Tea Across India RAISE FOR OT EA CROSS NDIA is an amusing and informative series of long drives, winding detours, and entertaining digressions along the highways of India. Rishad Saam Mehta evokes the unexpected pleasures of the open road, while celebrating Royal Enfi eld motorcycles, Tata trucks, the Indian Railways and other familiar modes of transport. His prose is fuelled by a fi nely-tuned carburettor.’ –Stephen Alter ‘Mehta’s passion for travel is quite infectious, his enthusiasm very real, and some of his adventures are amusingly larger than life. Told with a generous lashing of humour … and a thorough knowledge of the territory …’ –The Hindu ‘… a travel book written with ease, wit and a sense of place and people.’ –Eunice de Souza, Mumbai Mirror ‘Th e book is replete with … interesting encounters, making it an ideal tea-time read.’ –Business India ‘…the writing is very good, especially when Mehta describes scenery and breathtaking Himalayan ranges as he is riding past them or setting camp.’ –Ibnlive.com TRANQUEBAR PRESS An imprint of westland ltd Venkat Towers, 165, P.H. Road, Maduravoyal, Chennai 600 095 No. 38/10 (New No. 5), Raghava Nagar, New Timber Yard Layout, Bangalore 560 026 Survey No. A-9, II Floor, Moula Ali Industrial Area, Moula Ali, Hyderabad 500 040 23/181, Anand Nagar, Nehru Road, Santacruz East, Mumbai 400 055 4322/3, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi 110 002 First published in India in TRANQUEBAR by westland ltd 2011 Illustrations by Gynelle Alves Copyright © Rishad Saam Mehta 2011 All rights reserved 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 ISBN: 978-93-81626-10-8 Typeset in Minion Regular by SÜRYA, New Delhi Printed at Shree Maitrey Printech Pvt. Ltd., NOIDA This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, circulated, and no reproduction in any form, in whole or in part (except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews) may be made without written permission of the publishers. Contents The Highway Man and a Buffalo Instead of a Can Chef Doltu of Chandra Tal Thoda Chai Paani Spirituality and Splashes Bussing it to Manali Battle of the Loaders and Scrupulous Railway Clerks Good Friends and Biker Buddies Respect the Road The Bike Bandit God Bless Mrs Abraham and Sawant Rao Joshi Unbiased Bullet The Pathan of Pahalgam Down the Barrel of a Gun Automotive Love The Guides And Then There’s the Food, Of Course Chill Thrill The Animals Jolly Jhunjhunwalla and the Great Bus Chase ‘May We Please Kindly Burn Your Car?’ Acknowledgements f there is one certainty about roads in India, it is that—no matter where you are or what the hour—if you want a cup of tea, you’ll find a chai ka dukaan I within a few kilometres. The tea shop is an integral part of Indian national highways, state highways, minor roads, even rough tracks. From the desolate unsealed roads of Spiti high up in the Himalayas, to the sinuous route to Munnar, a cup of tea is within easy reach. When I travel, I like to drink tea, or rather, I need to drink tea; sometimes, I even survive just on tea. In fact, my travels in India are intricately linked with tea. A hot cup of well-brewed tea can truly be reviving in a way that a chilled aerated drink cannot. Even while driving through Rajasthan in the blazing desert summer, a khullad of chai in the shade of a tea tapri can refresh the mind and rejuvenate the body. Hot tea has plenty of avatars across India. It can vary from a steaming hot cup of amber laced with fragrant spices like cardamom and ginger in Gujarat, to a glass of pale greenish liquid with yak’s butter floating on top in a monastery in Ladakh. It can be served in a chipped white cup on a railway platform, a little clay pot (the khullad) across Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, or the standard ‘cutting’ glass which is the norm in Mumbai and south India. It might be strained by a delicate muslin cloth or flamboyantly poured from glass to glass to give it a fine froth. Tea shops can vary from flyinfested hovels to a hut surrounded by snow-capped mountains and with a river gurgling merrily behind it. I don’t think I can remember a single journey—and there have been many— where I haven’t stopped for a cup of tea. This beverage that epitomises India and is appreciated from Kargil to Kanyakumari often breaks the monotony of long hours on the road and has often led to some very interesting moments. It has started delightful conversations and has also caused digestive consternation. Chai has recharged me in Kashmir and reassured me in Kerala. It has been brewed for me by a former bandit and a simple shepherd. It has chased away the demons in my head and made a frontier man my friend. A cup of hot tea has been an integral part of every adventure I’ve had and every journey I’ve made in India.