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Chai-Chai-Chai: The Story of Indian Tea
You visit anyone’s house in India and you’d be greeted with an invitation for Chai, the great Indian tea. Often it’s not even a question, it’s more of imposition. Indians don’t use the phrase ‘would you like some chai?’ as much as ‘let me bring you some chai’. As a result, hardly any interaction —… Read more
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The Empire of Tea
Tea first reached Europe via whispers. As the travellers kept noticing in the Asian cultures a strange predilection for this divine drink, the gossips and rumours began to spread. This was the first of the series of events that were going to shape the empire of tea. Giovanni Battista Ramusio (1485-1577), an Italian scholar, mentioned… Read more
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The Early History of Tea
From mythology, let’s move on to the history of tea. One of the earliest texts on the subject of tea is Ch’a Ching (also known as The Classic of Tea), written by Lu Yu in the eighth century CE. Lu Yu, the great tea master, began to travel and research tea and water in the year 755 CE.… Read more
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The Tea Mythology
Before there was history, there was mythology. That’s the strange thing about human societies. The origins are almost always riddled with obscurities and only myths and legends can shine some light on them. The same holds true in the case of tea. Since it originated and evolved in the far-eastern cultures, which, historically, have maintained… Read more
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Ruskin Bond: A Life Well Lived in the Mountains
Few writers are loved as much in India as Ruskin Bond. The famous children’s writer has spent much of his life in the Himalayas. Born to an English couple in the British India, the 17-year-old Ruskin Bond had to go back to England in 1951. It was while he was in England, though, in the… Read more
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Himalayas in Indian Imagination
The concept of mountains as places of perfection in an imperfect world is a powerful trope in India, especially when it comes to the mighty Himalayas. Author and mountaineer Ed Douglas writes about the perspective through which Indians (of past and present) have viewed these mountains in his book Himalaya: A Human History. In the… Read more
