the chai man

last year i spent two months in india

(they were in fact two of the best months in the history of months).

five weeks playing with playdough and paint at a special school in kerala

and three weeks on buses, trains, planes and rickshaws 

having adventures from south goa to jaipur

with three english maidens i found along the way.

 here is a man that we met in ooty.

(ooty - short for ootacamund. 

a hill station in the state of tamil nadu.

two thousand four hundred metres above sea level.

very chilly. very green. 
the place where we discovered spicy cheese
and the holiness of the cow.)

the man in ooty had a tea shop.

he made us chai. and jam sandwiches.

(after three weeks of curry and ambiguous fruit items there is not much four english girls crave more than jam sandwiches)

he could not speak any english,

and we could not speak any tamil.

he boiled the milk in heavy saucepans

and served our tea in glasses that were not bigger than egg cups.

when he was not boiling he was sitting,

sitting in his wooden chair and looking at the heavy-uddered cows outside his window.

his brown jumper reminded me of my poppa and the knitted things that my nanna makes for him in english winters.

i wish i could have asked him things.

things about his grandchildren.

and his town.
and his tea.

he seemed like a man that's been in the world since the beginning.

like one of those gnarly trees that's been around for thousands of years.
yes.
if he was a tree he would definitely be this kind of tree.

 

a thought:

sometimes when you are a long way from home you see something that makes you think the world is small and all the same.
like a mcdonald's. 
or a black labrador.
but sometimes when you are a long way from home you see something and it doesn't seem 
that this world and the one you knew about before 
can both be real. 
foxtel and car insurance and lady gaga
in the same world as 
the chai man in his wooden chair
and the street cows outside his window?


i still wish i could have asked him things.


ps thank you lucy roome for letting me use your photo of the chai man.
you are very pretty.