Chaey Garam !!!
My previous post on "Café culture at AMU" definitely points to one common trait of aligarians, that is, most of them are addicted to Tea. Before and after every important activity, they would prefer having a cup of Tea.
For Aligarians, Tea is the drink of all moments and times. If they want to celebrate, they have Tea. If they are unhappy about something, they have Tea. If they want to tell you something, it will be over a cup of Tea. If two disputing parties want to reach a consensus, it will happen on a Tea table. Even if they are very busy, you can catch them catching up with their cup of Tea.
When aligarians are asked about the kind of Tea they would prefer, one can get a common answer - "kam shakkar, tez patti" which means strong Tea with less sugar in it. That's when they have a choice but in times of Tea crisis, they can get along with anything that is hot, looks and tastes like Tea but may not be Tea, actually.
This aligarian love for Tea is best visible on the campus. Wherever you go, you can find a Tea outlet close by. Famous hangouts for Tea-guzzlers are - AMU central canteen, Hostel canteens and Cafés like Café-de-phoos and Café-de-laila. Apart from these, one can find ample roadside dhabas on Anoopshaher Road and Medical Road. These dhabas are removed every year but they come up like mushrooms soon after. Not just this, their comeback is coupled with some quality improvements like good quality Tea and Hi-fi music system.
Then there's See-off Tea which is a very vital part in an aligarian's life. Whenever an aligarian is planning to set-off on a journey, he should be ready to treat his friends with See-off Tea. It's called so obviously because you offer this Tea to all those who have come to see you off.
The cup of Tea is so ubiquitous in AMU campus that it wouldn't be a hype if you call it the cup of life at AMU. Hype is when they say you chop off an aligarian's finger and you find Tea instead of blood. In the end, I will not withhold the fact that this blog entry has used the word "Tea" for 23 times.
posted by Qais Mujeeb at 4:15:00 PM
6 Comments:
Qais Bhai,
Salam alaikum.
Aaadab Arz Hai...
That was a wonderful article - A Snapshot down the memory lane.
"Chalo Dhaba chalte hain!"
"issi baat pe ek garma garam chai ho jaaye!"
(Obviously, i mean the dhabha where the latest top ten countdown of bollywood hit music is the best!
There are many others genres too, as you well know, the 'romantic' genre, 'Mohd Rafi' , 'Kishore Kumar' genres , the 'Kumar Sanu' genres..and so on...)
All of us may have spoken these 2 lines unkowingly ,hundreds of times with the passion, zest for life, and simplicity of aligs, who were ,in those days of campus life, very much passionate about their cup of chai!
I wouldn't say , "Keep up the good work", rather, "Do keep up that good 'photography' of yours."
AH
Rizal
Hey Riz !
Walaykum as-salaam
Thanks for the flattering com(pli)ments. My posts are nothing but an effort to capture the times we had at Aligarh and our thoughts on them.
Best Regards,
Qais
I remember, whenever we used to go to dhaba, we always asked for water before tea and it was purely a habit cos even in winters mid night water was asked before tea.
And to my immense surprise, recently when I met a an old timer in Delhi at Cafe Coffee Day, the old timer after ordering Cappuchino, asked for "yaar zara pani pila dena"
Some habits NEVER die
Chai and Lemon Juice:
The year was 1996 and month most likely September or October. India had defeated Pakistan gloriously in the World cup match and then came 5 match series between the two in Toronto on Oct/Sept 1996. The match was not being telecasted in the common rooms due to channel rights by ESPN. My group was specifically interested in seeing the match as we hoped the contest would be nail biting. Our prayers were answered and we got the news that there is a restaurant in upper court and they were playing the match. On the fateful day we marched to upper court with my friends. The real catch to watch the match was you have to drink the tea after every 45 minutes and you have to order omelette with bred after every 2 hours or so. Let me tell you the omelettes and tea was very good. The restaurant owner had a small boy who was vigilant enough to make sure you are consuming the tea and omelette at specified interval other wise the only option was to pay for what you have eaten and gracefully go back to university. Well we kept the momentum and watched the matches in the same restaurant. It was kind of getting cold so we did not mind consuming a lot of tea and omelettes. On the third match we met some other colleagues who were watching the match in another restaurant during the lunch break. I told them yaar dimag kharab kar rakkha hai every 45 minutes the guy brings in the tea and omelette every 2 hours or so. So the colleagues who were watching the match in the other restaurant said aap log bahut khusnaseeb ho, we are watching the match in a lemon juice restaurant and the guy brings us the lemon juice every 45 minutes in this cold weather.
Though there are so many stories written on a cup of CHAEY at DHABA either at Suleman Hall, Shamshad Market, V M Hall dhaba, Chungi... etc. But i am having good experience over a cup of tea. Once in Lawn of A I Hall my room partner Aamir Bin Hasan with a cup of tea was seeing the shabnam at the grass which was reflecting the rays of morning Sun was quite for some time when someone of us pinched him he replied
NOOR NE BHOOND KO HEERA TO BANA DALA
RAFTA RAFTA ISE DHUAN BHI BANA DHALEGA
Once discussion with a cup of tea at Zakaria over a student of Alig shotted down by a PAC person at V C Lodge, he normally said the below lines.
Khone jigar se seench ke gunchey kiye hain Surkh
Hairat nahin jo boe lahoo aaye gulon se.
Thanks Qais bhai for writting these beautiful blogs over Aligarh, these blogs takes us back to Aligarh Days.
Aligarh ki yaad aa gayi !
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