Cha and conversation: Why Manipuris need a good cup of street-style tea

While waiting for my turn at my regular hajam for a haircut in a gully of Imphal’s Paona Bazar, I followed the ritual I do on every visit: I asked for a cup of cha from the Bihari man whose stall was nearby. The first sip took me back to my boarding school days. It was underdone and tasted diluted.

“Bhaiya, aaj chai kisne banaya?” I asked him. Who made this tea? From our previous encounters, he knew how seriously I take my cup of cha. He responded stoically, “Gas nahi mil rahi hain.”

Among the many miseries Manipur is facing, a shortage of gas cylinders is one of them. I threw away the tea.

Back at the barber’s shop, Nitai was quiet as he cut my hair. He understood my anguish of having sipped a bad cup of cha. We would normally have chit-chatted about cricket. Before going to him, I Google the names of the current Indian cricket team players. Though I had grown up watching as much cricket as football, when I went to college in Delhi, I lost touch with the details as the gentleman’s game grew larger than life or perhaps even humanity.

“Life mein sab kuch galat ho raha hain, mujhe kam se kam acchi...

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