The Chai Wallah. (Part 2)

Chai recipe!

After receiving the hospitality from so many people and making it for my own guests, I have a pretty good recipe going. Everyone has their own taste, but this general recipe goes over pretty well. Obviously, there is some eye-balling involved in the measuring process. For an honored guest, extra sugar or cream is added.

1 cup water
1 cup whole milk (water buffalo if you can get it, with a fat content of 8%)
2 heaping Tbs loose black tea (3 or 4 tea bags of lipton might do it)
2 Tbs sugar
Fresh ginger- a piece about the size of the end of your thumb
Assorted spice
      -4 pieces clove
      -3 pods green cardamom (powdered might be available in states?)
      -1 dash of ground cinnamon
      -there are other good spices to experiment with, but this is a good start

-Without lighting the fire, combine the water, tea, and sugar in a pot. Add the ginger after crushing it with the back of a knife. Add the assorted spices after cracking up any pods.
-Light the fire, bring to a boil, and let it foam for 30 seconds.
-Add the milk, return to a boil and let it foam for 30 seconds.
-Pour the chai through a tea strainer while serving

Makes 4 servings
 

Scenes From a Chai Stall

This sight in the background caught me off guard. The officer stood at an intersection with a megaphone explaining traffic rules and correcting motorists disregarding the instructions. That's almost what I feel like doing sometimes. I could shake his hand for being so dutiful.

Culture point: notice the  man sitting on that handsome new motorcycle. I turned around from sipping some chai and this stranger was looking quite comfortable on my bike. Personal space is tight, so generally, any parked vehicle doubles as an acceptable place for anyone to sit. It's part of the community mind set that is something to adapt to. 

The Chai Wallah (part one)

 

This wallah is fundamental to life here. His presence is constant in a place characterized as "reliably unpredictable".
The chai infrastructure is remarkable in my opinion. In a place where electricity comes and goes, water runs out and is delivered once a day, and traffic obstructions range from cows to craters, the chai will go on!

No doubt, chai pushes me to my limit sometimes. For instance, you can move heaven and earth to organize a team and trucks to deliver aid in natural disasters, but if that team hasn't had it's morning chai yet, your caravan is going NOWHERE. It just wont. And it's excruciating.

However, when your long day is seasoned by, true story, a cow using your motorcycle to pick it's nose, you KNOW a chai wallah will be on the next corner to offer you a chai time-out.

Chai is truly a constant in South Asian living. It ties a lot of the struggles and comfort together in a pretty unique way.
 

Batti Choaka Walla

These guys are making a food unique to my region of the state. Hint, its not baked potatos.

Those are dough balls stuffed with spices and ground chickpea. And those aren't wood coals, but rather the embers of a burning dried cow poop and grass mix.

Even better, whole eggplants are smoked over the pan while the cow patties burn down. The eggplant is peeled and mixed with boiled potatos, chilies, and masala.

The roasted dough balls are tumbled clean(enough) in a sheet and tossed in a refined butter. The dough balls are then ready to be broken up and eaten while scooping the veggie mix.

It's enough to make you cry "Uncle!"

Yep. Totally asleep. Woke up to see the crowd and...
went back to sleep. 

On a last minute call, we packed all night to catch a 3am train out of town. Due to disagreement with a conductor on the platform boarding was going to be tight. With Bollywood-star-like agility we ran along side the moving train to find an open door. But that night was a Bollywood tale of woe as every door was locked and we had to walk back past hundreds of half-sleeping people who just watched the effort.

If anyone could help us find the next solution it would be the uncles at the ticket window. Not pictured are the 20 other men I waded among trying to rouse the employees. No matter how people pushed or persuaded, the help window remained open, but not doing business.

This experience typifies some of the most trying moments here. Just when you want something to go right. But a way was made and we caught our flight by using an alternative bicycle rickshaw, 4 hour bus ride, and regional flight to catch our intended flight.

Khan Saaf Kerna Wallah- The one who cleans ears

As I was sitting over chai with a friend at the motorcycle shop an ear cleaning guy walked by. With a simple head bobble of communication the ear cleaner got to work. He used forceps, a brass spoon/hook tool, and a rod with a cotton swab end to extract ear debris. As he went, debris was wiped on the back of his thumb, showing my friend each bit.

When both ears were as clean as a whistle they both examined the accumulated crud and haggled on "How much is that job worth?"

For the use of this picture, I sprung for the cost of the procedure, which was roughly 8 cents USD.

I have never had my ears cleaned this way as ear drums have been known to get punctured from time to time.

 

Language milestones and new friends

These were my trusty barbers back in the hill town. Just 200 feet from my apartment. They spoke zero English and getting the right haircut or shave required some quick learning. As many barber shops across the world, it was good place to sit and hear guys talk. Hours of sitting and struggling to chat turned into some of my best learning time.

A major milestone of my time in the hill town was a late evening conversation during Ramazan. The barbers had broken their fast, there were no customers to interrupt, and it turns out my Hindi gets better late at night. We were able to listen to stories in Urdu, the Muslim variation of Hindi, and discuss what the most important parts were. It was a huge milestone to have a conversation and move towards a main point to be understood.
I miss seeing these guys every day, but they will be my first stop when I need a shave and can get back to the hill town.