chai, garum chai

halfway between breakfast, lunch, dinner and any rumbling of hunger is a phenomenon all its own. tea time. an enduring testament to the british raj, tea is arguably the national pastime in india. chai stops punctuate long taxi journeys, hot mornings and slow long days in the classroom. at each train station throughout india chaiwallas (tea men) board the train, waking soundly sleeping passengers with their croonings, “chai, garam chai.” an offer of chai during a day of shopping creates a captive audience of consumers, awaiting their tea at the hands of storeowners, with increasingly “beautiful”, “unique”, or “perfect” goods.

at woodstock, tea time occurs promptly at 10:20 and 4:15 daily. students descend the high school ramp to the cafeteria to obtain their chai while teachers escape to the teacher’s lounge. tea time in the teacher’s lounge is an interesting world of expectation and responsibility. you see, there is a tea sign up, and twice a semester you are responsible for providing a tantalizing snack--enough to allay tensions of morning classes and sustain hunger pangs until lunch. opening the doors to candle lit trays of cookies or an empty table, void of goodies, can make or break the workday. and, we are what we contribute to the midday snack.

as this is my first tea time (student teachers are not responsible for bringing tea snacks as they are not actually real teachers [which is arguable] or grownups [not arguable, in my case]). i felt i needed to make an impression. a statement— “i am not only a capable social studies teacher, but also a domestic goddess who produces items of culinary wonder in her free time.” reminiscent of bridget jones’ aspiration toward domestic divinity, i too have met trials (a la blue soup). i entered my kitchen at approximately 6 pm, ready to cook myself a delicious dinner whilst baking tantalizing banana crumble muffins. due to mathematical miscalculation and not reading the directions (lifelong deficiencies), as welll as confusing powdered sugar for flour (i hesitate to admit this), my first batch ended up frothing over in the oven just as my pasta needed to be drained and my simmering vegetables required tending. suffice it to say, 5 hours later, my last batch of muffins is in the oven (due mainly to the fact that the oven is scarcely larger than one of the “easy bake” variety and a six-muffin tray is all that will fit inside).

despite my blunders, cheers to the british raj and the wonder that is tea time.

p.s. remember the "proper english tea" from st. olaf days of yore? yeah, well, nothing in india looks like that, but here's to a gimse photo winner.