Chai – 9/28/14

                As promised, here is short blog about my feelings on chai. I’ll just go ahead and be blunt with it: I don’t like chai. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised by this fact. I mean, I don’t like tea in the USA so why should I enjoy it here? This, of course, has also proved to be a slight obstacle to overcome. The first 9 days in Sona Pani I religiously drank it, hoping that the taste would somehow grow on me, but it never did and often just left me feeling even queasier than before. I stopped drinking it altogether while we were in Binsar and Jageshwar, breaking my no-chai streak the night we arrived in Munsiyari in order to warm up after nearly freezing from our time at the waterfall.

                That particular cup of chai would be the first of many in Munsiyari. The first day of homestays I think I choked down 4 or 5 cups of it as multiple homestay families (including my own) insisted on providing our group with a hospitable cup of chai to welcome us to the community. In the morning Chase and I were woken by Tasu, our homestay brother, banging on the door and shouting, “Chai, bidi! Chai!” Then, at breakfast came another cup and then another when we arrived home at night (there were additional chai breaks during the day up at Malika-ji’s house in which I did not partake). And, why not have just one more cup before bed? During this time of chai overload I learned to request mint chai over milk chai because it was much more bearable, but I still slightly grimaced every time the subject of more tea was brought up.

                After a few days I felt comfortable enough at my homestay to start rejecting offers for tea and made a no-chai vow to maintain a certain level of sanity (I made an exception for one last mint chai to say goodbye to Pushpa-ji and her wonderful family). In the coming days, however, I know I will have to embark on this chai-drinking journey once more as I meet my new host family that will house me for the next seven months. I know it sounds like an obvious choice just to say “Sorry, I don’t like chai” and reject chai from the onset with my family, but there’s always a balance to strike between expressing your opinions and being respectful.

                Luckily, I am the odd one out in regards to chai drinking. Everyone else in my group is crazy about it and gladly drinks the cups that I reject. I was very thankful to have Chase with me in the last homestay to surreptitiously take my chai cups when she had finished hers. As excited I am to move to Banaras, I am a little apprehensive about having to revert to chai drinking on a regular basis.