Through the land of teA-totallers!


Oh! Where is he? Where is my lifeline? My recharge? Oh! For the hot touch on my lips and the soothing sensation running all over me! Oh for the bliss of burning liquid! Oh for the magic potion that quenches my thirst! Where, where, where? Well buddies, if it’s your assumption that I’m talking about a lover, sorry, you’re not only predictable, but also way off the mark!

------------and if you are under the impression that cigarettes, alcohol and drugs are the only addictives, you are way off the mark----------------yet again! Ask the coffee/tea lovers, they know better! I’m not a tee-totaller, but a total tea-er; I qualify thus as I never take coffee, but am a die-hard tea-addict!

Let me start the story where I should have started it---------at the Railway Station, Nagerkovil! My friend and I are just back from a trip to Nagerkovil (located in Tamil Nadu, at about 45 mins drive from Kanyakumari). We’d been there to visit a friend of ours and took the direct train back to Bangalore, which takes a circuitous route, all the way through Kerala! (a good 20 hours on the train!)

Ever since I got onto the train, my eyes were scranning for the guy with the tea can and the disposable cups! And he did arrive in all his customary efficiency; brisk walk, quick service et al! But lo behold! He was a coffee vendor, and he did NOT sell tea! Oh well, I thought, others must be around-------and true to my expectation, there were! But what’s this? Everyone had a shake of the head, there was hardly a single nod that said, ‘yes, tea is available’!

I didn’t lose hope in a hurry; and I voiced it to my friend too! He agreed with me that it was just a matter of time and we’d find tea at the next station! We arrived at the next station, and the next and the next----------------all through Kerala--------------and can you believe it? We still didn’t find a single tea vendor!

Whatever happened to all the ‘nairs and their chaya’? We’ve often heard this exaggerated joke on the ‘Nair and his chaya’ at the poles and even on the moon! I wondered if all of them had gone there, crowding the poles and the moon, leaving the Kerala stations wanting! I did manage to hold back one of the coffee vendors and asked him why it was that no one brought tea; and he replied, ‘well, on this route there is usually a demand for coffee and never for tea’! ---------I just couldn’t believe it! But then, I guess that must have been the truth, for he was the one with the proof!

If that was my woe, my friend had a misery of his own! His eyes were scanning too---------------not for tea vendors---------but for the proverbial ‘Kerala Kuttis’!!! Poor guy------------we didn’t spot even a single original Kerala beauty! Most of the milling crowd was made up of the run-of-the-mill faces! Used to the ‘drop-dead-gorgeous’ city types, he was desperate to lay his eyes on the ‘long-tressed, doe-eyed, breath taking beauties’ of the Kerala countryside (oh yes, the train stopped at the tiniest station too!). I wasn’t being very helpful to him when I mentioned with a sardonic smile that the ‘Kuttis’ must have accompanied the ‘nairs’ to the poles and the moon! With such specific missions, we probably didn’t find it in ourselves to ‘ooh and aah’ over the scenic beauty that we travelled past; a typical case of ’having an eye for the detail, but missing the big picture’!!! ha haaaaaaaaaaa

-------------oh well----------sigh-----------------we reached Bangalore the next morning, two disappointed and disgruntled souls---------------he hadn’t found his ‘Kerala Kutti’ and I hadn’t found my ‘cup of tea’! 





 

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