The roadside tea vendors in India

The roadside tea vendors in India

The rationale behind drinking tea, the Indian way, may be difficult to comprehend fully by an outsider. We drink tea when we are happy. We drink tea when we are in a pensive mood. While we wait for some time, we drink tea. When we are in a mood to discuss something very important, we look for a cup of tea. We also slowly sip a big tea when we need to pass time.

To discuss football or cricket, we gather over a cup of tea. We sip tea while browsing the newspaper in the morning. We take a second tea because the story we are sharing is not over. Sometimes, we take the third tea since the first one was having too much sugar, and the second tea had too much milk!

Some of us may like Punjabi tea; a few may like ginger tea; some fellow will like only Darjeeling tea for the special flavor. Some careless fellow would mix lots of sugar into a glass of tea and still, he would mysteriously escape diabetes. Somebody likes to have a hot tea after lunch. A few old fellows can not start their day before they gulp two big glassfuls of hot milk tea without sugar and then clear their bowels. You can not compel them to go on any errands like bringing morning vegetables, fish, milk, etc., from the market, till they declare they are ready.

With such a vast range of clientele, the tea shops thrive in India. They grow like mushrooms everywhere. During the period July 2012 to October 2013, for sixteen long months, I provided a nightly service along with my other colleagues. We took technical screening interviews of IT professionals based in US geography at their convenient hours for placement to our clients based in the US. We were conducting these pre-scheduled calls from our Kolkata office at Camac Street. We were two members most of the time. Sometimes a third member would join when the load increased. In such a situation, we would be operating two or three parallel tracks from multiple conference rooms.

We would start taking overseas calls from 8 o’clock in the evening our time and the same would continue till early morning 4 o’clock the next day, sometimes even up to 5-30 AM. So, what kept us awake? An occasional tea at Park Street. Instead of taking a tea or coffee from the office vending machine, we would prefer to go out hunting for a handmade tea.

You may not believe it, but handmade tea was available. It was available near Park Street - Middleton Rowe junction. It was available near Park Street - Camac Street Junction.

I, and, two more colleagues, had been interviewing the candidates. Sometimes, one slot of the interview might remain vacant. The candidate informed us there was bad weather and the signal reception was poor. He was on the highway, traveling. So, we would reschedule the interview for a later slot down the week. We then would break for a tea at, say, 2 AM!

Where to go for the tea? Park Street, where else? We would start from our location at Camac Street, would walk a few steps to reach Park Street. Then we would proceed towards Park Hotel. Yes, the tea stall was open! We got a beautiful handmade hot tea in a paper cup. Various choices of biscuits were also on offer. So, we would spend some time there and then stroll back at a snail's pace.

Thus. we are perfectly charged up for the next series of interviews for the night!

Interestingly, each interview would happen on a different technology skill-set. So, the interviewers’ collective team expertise and experience need to cover all such skills! And, the total skill sets, we were required to have the expertise, would be around forty! The professionals on the other side would be having experience ranging from 6 years to 25 years plus. The key challenge for us was rapid context switching from one interview to the next. It was really a challenging assignment. Our US-based collaborator and colleague said the monthly placements had taken off very well after we started. There was hardly any rejection during the final customer interview.

Generally, any time between 3-30 AM to 5-30 AM, we would complete all our nightly scheduled fixtures. It was time to wrap up. One office car would drop three of us. It would drop one colleague first at Garia, then the other colleague at Salt Lake, and then, it would drop me at Dumdum. This order also would be reversed on alternate days. We would traverse a distance of approximately 70 KM from Central Kolkata to extreme end of South Kolkata to East Kolkata to extreme end of North Kolkata. Before we start, we would look for the usual tea vendor opposite our office at Camac Street. These two brothers would usually sleep on the Camac Street pavement for years. I discovered that during this assignment only. They would run their tea stall from early morning 4 AM till 11 PM non-stop at Camac Street - Middleton Row junction. And, again, at 4 AM the next day, they would be ready with a fresh tea for us!

We would sip their first-morning tea and then would return back home. Sometimes, after dropping one colleague at Garia and one more colleague at Salt Lake, I would be the last person to be dropped at Dumdum. So, this journey would take around an hour and a half. I would feel the need for another tea. We, the office car driver and I, would get that tea at Dumdum Road at multiple places from 3-30 AM onwards.

To summarize, Kolkata would never sleep when it is a matter of sipping a cup of tea.

My experience at dead of night in Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Chennai, was also no different. It became clear to me that all these cities, and a few more major cities, were serving a vast set of geographies across the globe round the clock as a reliable back-office.

These tea vendors had been sincerely serving their clients round the clock. If you would need quick food at odd hours, they would provide you that. It could be a simple toast and omelet only. It could be a few samosas. It could be a delicious fresh beson-fried 'onion bhaji', or a fresh beson-fried 'potato bhaji'. These persons would never say ‘No’ to us.

I did not bother where they slept, what they ate, how much they earned. Because they were serving my requirement with the best quality tea at all my convenient hours, always with a smile, and never asking for any favor. I demanded what I wanted at odd hours. I knew they would comply. I behaved like a selfish and insensitive consumer.

They never said they don’t have a job. These boys never expressed their sorrows. They never complained. When, occasionally, police would ask them to vacate their unauthorized shops, they would keep the facility closed for a few days. They would lie low for that period. Then again, they would bounce back.

I feel guilty and selfish as a consumer.

Today, as I retrospect, reassess, I discover wonderful things.

These boys have shown their spirit for survival.

They have shown their commitment to customers.

They have shown their commitment to the quality of their products and services.

I salute them as my unsung heroes.

They are also very much an integral part of the Global Delivery Eco-System built by India.

Because of them, we, the Professionals, keep working day and night with no trouble.

We know, when we need their services at any hours, they are there.

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