“C’mon get up, tea’s ready”, and my sis and I would throw off our blankets, scramble and rush tthrough the morning routines for our favorite part of all day – having tea with dad and mom in the balcony of our ground floor garden appartment in the township. Cane chairs would be pulled up, the swing would be set on a slow motion and hot tea would be served. My bro exercised a choice – he might join or not – all depending upon how late he woke up.
There would be casual conversations and laughs over tea; dad would go through the news and conclude upon the state of the world firmly buttressed and rationalized through his astrological wisdom. Mom would offer her fundas, and we the kids had our own stands on things beyond us. Picking on each other was a norm. We would stretch the time as long as we could, and then scramble and rush through towards dashing off to school. You see, we adopted the JIT (just in time) approach even before we studied about the
method in college 😉
A pigeon flutters off taking a cue from its partner, and I come back to the present. My 6 year old is having her milk, and I, tea – in the balcony. We have a small balcony on the 6th floor of a building, no garden. There is a swing, yes, accomodated in the living room. My younger one, the mischievous 1.5 year old is fast asleep and wifey has an excuse since she’s the one who puts the lil’ one to sleep.
And as I take another sip, I look at my 6 year ol’. She seems to be enjoying the morning time in the balcony with me and her warm cup of milk. Little does she know that she’s been woken up @ 10 minutes earlier than usual for school… is that selfish ? 😉
Would be great if she starts having tea when older, I think. But right then my wife’s stern countenance flashes before me, and all my hopes are completely and comprehensively quashed. Well whatever keeps the mornings going…
As I hit the road to school, I think of the tea mornings, the ten-fifteen minutes of each morning that must have aggregated over thousands of hours of fun & quality time that we’ve had. We are all at different places now. I can only hope that the tea tradition remains intact…morning banters over cups of tea in the balcony…
My parents still continue the tradition … however there are no more giggles… the gaggle has left.
While coming back, the media player serves me a song…
Kyun desh videsh phire maara
Kyun haal behaal thakha haara
oh naadaan parindey, ghar aajaa