"Over a cup of Tea"

(A tribute to the magic leaf on the International Tea Day)

“Come! Let us discuss over a cup of tea.”

I called the team inside the room. Be it a chat, a discussion, a conference, a negotiation, an argument, a decision making or a brainstorm, the cup of tea functions both as a trigger and a catalyst! Problems are solved or resolved over a cup of tea.

If the problem persists or the discussion continues you may very well, ask “Another cup of tea?”

When their silence becomes their answer or the head unwillingly nods again, you may ask “Would you like to have a cup of normal tea or black tea?”

The range of tea that I can host is spread over a spectrum of choices- the white tea, the black tea, the herbal tea, the green tea, the ginger tea, the masala chai, the lemon tea, the hibiscus tea, the saffron tea, the cinnamon tea, the Tulsi tea and a wide range of others.

Specially when you have early in the dawn, a hot cup of light black tea tamed with a few drops of lemon and topped with two drops of honey, the day finds itself worth living.

No wonder, Lao-Tzu said ““Tea is the elixir of life."

Well, whether the alchemists found the ‘elixir de life’ or not, the one who discovered this ‘elixir’ is worth several salutations!

Sitting alone near a window side with the cold breeze combing the hair, if you enjoy the hot sip, you can easily let your dream horses run their voyage. It fires your imagination and could make you a poet or a technician, an author or a painter, a gay walker, or a marathon racer!

Charles Lamb and Elia, were not too crazy when they sat over a cup of tea in the Old China cup painted with nice imageries, recalling their early difficult days when they could not have a penny to go to a theatre. It could bring back to them how the galleries where they were seated were like the thrones of heaven!

Wrote the eighth century Chinese poet Lu Tong, how ‘the seven sips’ took him into an entirely different world of experiences through the following lines:

“One bowl moistens the lips and throat.

Two bowls shatters loneliness and melancholy.

Three bowls, thinking hard, one produces five thousand volumes.

Four bowls, lightly sweating, the iniquities of a lifetime disperse towards the pores.

Five bowls cleanses muscles and tendons.

Six bowls accesses the realm of spirit.

One cannot finish the seventh bowl but feels only a light breeze spring up under the arms.”

Sherlock Holmes, sitting on his teakwood rocking chair, enjoying the first sip, was able to put all his intelligence together to identify the cause of the crime!

The Japanese doyen of Tea world Okakura Kakuzo remarked in “The Book of Tea”-“Tea is a religion of the art of life."

The joy of Tea, along with its fragrance, has travelled across the world – all races, all religions, all communities, all languages, all professions, and all seasons.

Says Thich Nhat Hanh, the Buddhist monk “"Tea is an act complete in its simplicity."

Visiting Japan a few times, I have never missed attending the Tea ceremony either in Tokyo or Kyoto or in Hiroshima. On all the three occasions, I could see a philosophy of life narrated through every single movement that manifests into an event of making and serving a cup of tea.

The grace, the grandeur, the humility, and simplicity coupled with the motions that describe the constructive interaction of the yin-yang energies is indeed a life-time learning. Says Thich Nhat Hanh “Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves — slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future.”

When you are tired and depressed – have a cup of tea!

When you are joyous and romantic – have a cup of tea!

When you are a winner and successful – celebrate with a cup of tea!

When you are lost and seek some solace – hold the cup of tea!

“Where there is tea, there is hope” says Arthur Wing Pinero, the English playwright.

The Ginseng and turmeric tea of Korea, the Oolong or the lemongrass Tea from Philippines, the English Tea from Britain, the light graceful tree from Darjeeling, the lotus or the jasmine tea from Vietnam ?and the Greek Mountain Tea could help one to understand how the world and its cultures’ ?function. Every one of them brings along with them a history, a geography, a culture, a trade, and a life system!

“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me” said, the famous essayist, C.S. Lewis. It is indeed difficult to disagree with him.

Was tea an accidental discovery by emperor Shen Nung of China, who was an herbal specialist, or the credit goes to anyone else, we do not know. But the fall of the leaves was indeed a blessing to the humanity!

It is said that the ‘mechanics of brewing’ either the tea or the wine, is indeed both an art and science. In both cases, ‘the wine tasters’ and the ‘tea tasters’ put all their senses together to bring the essence of the leaves and their interaction with the water.

Tasting the “Taro Bubble Tea,” rich in fibre, I walked down like a young child, trying to figure out the myth lying inside. "Each cup of tea represents an imaginary voyage" said Catherine Douze

On this International Tea Day, 21 May, I could write volumes on ‘The voyage of Tea and how it navigated the human lives.” But, let me summarise my feelings and thoughts on tea by recalling the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who said “Some people will tell you there is a great deal of poetry and fine sentiment in a chest of tea.” This is also the time to salute those unknown soldiers on the mountain terrains who laboured to pick those leaves so that they can keep the entire world happy!

I really enjoyed reading these lines of a poem on the internet, titled “Sip your tea and go” –

“Life is too Short but feels pretty Long,

There’s too Much to do, so much going Wrong,

And Most of the Time You Struggle to be Strong,

Before it’s too Late

and it’s time to Go,

Sip your Tea.

Nice and Slow.”