A cup of Chai....

One Sunday morning she went to the grocery store to buy sugar and tea leaves for her husband, when she noticed a pile of magazines with glossy papers in the window. When she asked for one, the shopkeeper nodded a 'No' to her, as he would require them to make paper bags to fill the grocery items to sell. She pleaded hard and suggested that he use the same papers to wrap the tea leaves and sugar, the shopkeeper gave in.

Once home, she quickly unwrapped and emptied the packets, with great care so as to remove the wrinkles she unfolded the wrappers. The picture of an enormous dining table with porcelain crockeries was presented.

The white sparkling porcelain cups, saucers, plates, dishes were alluring. The little green leaves on the surface with golden outline and a piece of extremely beautiful design won the heart. She looked at it constantly. . . . . . .

A smoke filled the mud house, creating a feel of a dreamland as if the small mud house with a thatched roof would suddenly turn into a great dining hall as in the picture instantly. . . . . . . like magic!

"Oh no!" It had completely erased out of her mind that she had kept the water to boil on the 'chulha' and now the entire water was about to evaporate soon, she quickly tried to remove the sizzling hot pot with her hands, "ouch"she shrieked. . . . . the vessel was tremendously hot with boiling water. . . . . . .

The burn was enough to put away the thoughts of the beautiful dining hall!

Madhuri, a wife and a mother of three was suddenly aroused from the dream, her world was not the riches and luxuries, she was a poor and uneducated woman in this remote village of Bangachia, who was not even allowed to uncover the veil from her face in front of strangers, let alone the dreams about luxuries!

She was illiterate and if she would be found daydreaming upon such useless magazine sheets. . . . . she would have been beaten to death by her husband!

But she liked to see the sheet of papers, the glossy and shining black papers were soothing to touch, the sumptuous banquets or dining arouse a feeling of comfort and strong egarness in her. . . . she was poor, unwanted in her family, once and only once if she could have a chance of being rich!

It became no less clandestine, as she kept it a secret from her family. She would look into the papers when her husband would be away, she would unfold the neatly folded papers and feel the touch, smell them.

She would dream, a dream that felt lost to her.

Her daily struggle of life, the taunts and the monotonous life of looking after her husband and children suddenly changed, a spring of happiness, joy and peace of mind entered. At first, she had to struggle – moving them from sewing basket to linen cupboard to suitcase. She had no room of one's own, not even a drawer of one's own. The magazine papers became her only private space.

She was unhappy with her life, her inability to connect to or understand her sons and their choices and her stale marriage. She stayed up into the early hours, feigning insomnia, to find the time and privacy to goggle in to the piece of papers which triggered a strange feeling, what was she for?what was she doing here?was she meant for this?She was transparent, simple, a person who had no surprises either for herself or for others, however the changes came about prominently. She thought to herself, her life was distressing and she could not do anything in her life, the same old violence and quarrels with her husband, the same old taunts and mockery from her sons, where was her life?

In recording her thoughts and feelings, she started to rediscover who she was outside of her family, uncovering the needs and desires that had been overtaken by her domestic duties.

There is a growing chasm between the person she presented to her family and neighbours, and the self she revealed in front of the papers.

The neighboring women often came to Madhuri in the evening for rendezvous and a cup of tea. This was something Madhuri could do very well, hosting and cooking and it was and old saying in the village, anyone who could make excellent tea could cook very well!

One evening a woman who seemed to have been in the city quite some time said, "Madhuri, if only you could have been in the city you could work at the restaurants and earn a lot!"

That triggered Madhuri's mind as she started to rediscover herself as something more than a wife and mother.

She did not have a great childhood, she was married to someone twice as old as her at a very young age and now had 3 sons just at the age of 32.

She was capable of doing something more elegant and satisfying to herself.

She could not leave her family as she had nowhere to go. , she could not ask or suggest her husband to take her to the city. She was prisoned in the chores of the family without any respite.

The constant embarrassment, taunts, and violence in her family led her to think differently, she wanted to be free, like the birds, she wanted to be independent, earn for herself.

Lallan, a young chap often visited her husband for work. . . . . however he was more interested in Madhuri's way of handling the daily chores and cooking, he would often appreciate her skills of cooking and making tea thus encouraging her to do something, exceptionally for herself, to try finding her true passion. The encouragement germinated the seed of freedom in her, she wanted to live her life differently. . . .

But in examining her life so closely, Madhuri became increasingly restless. The better she started to know herself, the more lost she became. Her close interaction with Lallan, who was quite polite and friendly in nature slowly and gradually created a separate space for himself in Madhuri's heart as a friend, she started to spend more and more time with him, the time spent together made her feel like a sudden rain in a situation of drought. She started to understand the meaning of life out of the monotony. She started to enjoy the freedom. Her husband would not pay heed initially, assuming Lallan came for just work'. However things shaped differently when neighbours would often see Madhuri and Lallan together and create obnoxious stories around them.

The freedom she had just started to savour turned into fear.  All her feelings dissected, rot, became poison and she was aware of becoming the criminal the more she tried to be the judge. . . . . . the worst was yet to come!

Madhuri's husband was shocked at the news and got Lallan beaten almost to death and thrown into the filthy garbage, that night Madhuri faced the tremors of violence that was enough to create shivers in her nerves. . .

Society hardly understands the feelings, whatever they see they judge accordingly, never do they think deep into the relationship, a boy and a girl, or a man and a woman cannot be friends and empathetic to each other. Society can only look down upon the relationship with a sight, which is cruel and cheap.

When Madhuri realized it was already too late. Lallan was found dead and Madhuri was imprisoned in the house.

She had been planning to flee from the clutches of her husband and the cheap looks of the society.

One night she stealthily managed to break open the door without the notice of her husband and her children, she fled. . . . . . . 'ah! What a freedom!'

She ran as fast as her legs would take her. . . . . . leaving everything behind, the violence, the death, the tremors, the stale marriage, the monotony of life, the taunts, her husband, her children, the bondage, every single thing.

Leading through the cruelness and filth of the society, she ran through all the alleys and passages, she roamed around in the unknown streets, dirty and unwanted.

But society had another plan preserved for her.

Why is that a habit of the sleazy people of society not to let a woman alone? Why does a woman need a shoulder or a shelter of a man? Why is it that when a woman is seen helplessly on the streets the dominating part of the society stick out their tongue to salivate and lick as if they are ready to pounce upon the helpless being called'woman'!

People of the society could easily mark her to be 'vaishya'-prostitute without a second thought, since she left her home, husband and children and was found in an 'illicit' relationship with another man, doesn't matter whether it was friendship or something else. A woman with another man seen together after marriage was considered sin in such remote villages.

Nevertheless, the life of Madhuri turned out even more hateful after she left her matrimonial house. The doors to the ruthless society was wide open. It is prominent, if a women tries to protect herself or tries to lead a life alone or tries to re-start her life, the society gives her a strong blow that leads to the woman falling with her face down on the ground.

So it happened with Madhuri, she tried to flee from the life full of violence however destiny drove her to a life full of filth.

She was not sure of the intent, a search of new life and freedom took her through the dirty alleys of the brothels.

The group seemed to be friendly but Madhuri had no idea what was waiting for her.

Two years later an alleged prostitution racket was busted at a hotel after a police constable posed as a customer, four women and a man were acquitted. Trafficked through an elaborate global network and enslaved in a city brothel, millions of vulnerable girls worldwide are being ensnared by human traffickers into the insidious world of sex slavery and exploited relentlessly to generate profits of one hundred billion dollars a year.

Madhuri was one of the acquitted, but was that her fault?She dreamt of wellness, a world free from violence, a free world where she can express her emotions and her 'yes's' &'no's' has values. After being trafficked through an elaborate global network of illicit human, organ, and drug trafficking, Madhuri ended up as sex slave in a brothel in the commercial capital. There was no way to escape her enslavement and reclaim her freedom.

The charges on her put her behind the bars. She had no one to save or protect, in 2 years Madhuri had grown mentally.

She knew how cruel the world around her could be, everywhere she would go to, its abuse, violence and filth for her.

Was she not deserving a life of 'human being' with respect?

Abused, beaten, and broken, she would have to stand to escape and reclaim her dignity and freedom.

But what life would she have after the prison?

A torn newspaper with the ad featuring tea leaves, a packet of tea, cups & saucers caught her eyes. A similar kind of teapot and dining that she longed for and the same that restored in her memories from the magazine papers. . . . . . . .

Life after prison is exceptionally difficult, society marks you as criminal and if one is a sex worker like Madhuri, they have no place to go except for the dark alleys again.

She had no money, no food, no lodging but she promised to herself never to return to those dark alleys, by now she had understood the policy and procedure through which a society works, one have to have both gentleness and harshness to deal with the 'dominating group's of the society.

She walked down the dusty lane. . . . . scorching heat of the sun itched her body, her clothes were dirty and shabby, she had not eaten anything since the last 2 days. . . . her eyes dimmed in the sun, throat dried off. . . . . . when she saw a stall, a tea stall. . . . . she stopped by to get some water. . . . . while she was trying to relieve herself from the thrist, something crossed her mind. . . . she would need to work. . . . work with respect to earn her livelihood, to quench her hunger. . . . .

She walked towards the owner of the tea stall and asked for some work, any work!

The owner was looking for a help since few days but the, matter of trust came in to picture, she could not produce her identity, he had never seen her nearby. . . . all such questions arose.

She lied about her identity but her mesmerizing talks allured the owner assuming she was the right person to be hired, he didn't reject her.

A new journey started. Soon Madhuri gained the trust of the tea stall owner and the customers. Customers of all age would flock around the tea stall to have different types of tea!

The items listed from ginger tea and milk tea raised to basil tea, liquor tea, Masala tea, mixed blend tea, green tea, lemon tea, cardamom tea etc, with tasty bread toast, omlett and snacks the tea stall flourished.

The old tea stall owner was very happy with his flourishing business.

Days went by the old owner had no heir to his tea stall and gradually his love for Madhuri as his daughter increased so much so that before death he handed over his soul property of the tea stall to Madhuri, who excepted the gift readily.

After the death of the old owner started a new life again. . . . . . Madhuri had to work herself, make different kinds of tea, savories and along side run the business. With little hiccups initially the business stood up profoundly.

A women opposition to the entire society trying to stand with her head held high, seems to be like the shrubs or thorny parasites trying to peek through the climbers and then diminished by the huge trees around them.

Madhuri started a new life though she could not flee from her dark past. A past that could have erased her present and future.

Someone from her past spotted her and then what the repercussion would have been cannot be expressed in words. . . . Madhuri had suffer the harsh consequences. . . . . .

Fate took her to yet another journey, but now she had known how to live in this cruel world.

She picked up the broken kettle and few cups. . . . . she was born to struggle not to remain a fugitive, 'No, she cannot flee!'

She will live and struggle until this society ceases to give her the toughest afflictions.

She will live and will still make a 'cup of chai' for the traveller's!

---‐‐-------‐-----‐---------------------------------------

"Perfection comes with practice, do not under brew or over brew it, boil the water in a saucepan and when it starts to bubble its time to add them, turn the heat off immediately. Let this sit for 3-5 minutes. Timing is crucial, it is everything. A few extra minutes can make it bitter, and less minutes can make it taste like nothing.  if you see the leaves have settled to the bottom, it’s time to heat the content again for a few seconds because it must have gone cold in the process. Then gently strain the beautiful golden amber colour liquid in a beautiful white cup, the aroma spreads through, add the sugar and milk and lift the cup and take a sip. . . . . . . . . . . "

"ahhhh"

"What did you find?"

The gentleman who had been interviewing the woman enterpreneur of the year, 'Madhuri', owning huge dealerships of tea supplies created a charm with her story telling and the 'Tea', the aroma drained through his throat and reached out to the stomach making its course through the heart. . . . . . Madhuri's struggle brought true colors and flavors!

He felt the flavors and then replied, "Magic in a little Cup of Chai!"