What’s in a name? A lot if its Jhumri Talaiya

Places like people have names. And some of them have an aura, a magic and a history that attracts you towards them. The rhythm and the phonetics of some of these names made you fall in love with such places even though you knew nothing about them. I remember growing up as a kid in the sixties being enamoured by exotic and quaint names like Dehradun, Chamba, Landsdowne, Mackleski Gunj, Dehri-on-Sone, Stratford-upon-Avon, Adis Ababa, Timbuktoo, Honalulu…

The list is long actually, but none can take the place of two words that rhyme so beautifully when juxtaposed next to each other- Jhumri Talaiya. The small town in today’s state of Jharkhand has been immortalised by Vividh Bharti and Radio Ceylon. Rather, it would be more correct to say that the music loving people immortalized their towns’ name in our national consciousness during the sixties and seventies.

Almost every song in Vividh Baharati’s Aap ki farmaish programme that was aired during that era had people from this town sending in their requests. But way back in the sixties there were many who even doubted that a town with the name Jhumri talaiya existed. The cynics said that it was a fictional town created just to keep the songs going. Gradually people realized that this small town in the then state of Bihar actually existed and was famous for its mining activities.

Apart from Mica which is mined in Jhumri Talaiya there is also a dam here under the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC). It is because of this dam that the place has a beautiful lake- talaiya. This explains half of the history behind the origin of this name. The first half- Jhumri is ascribed to a particular type of broomstick that is made in this area. A-broom–town-next-to-a-lake!! Even the English literal translation sounds beautiful isn’t it?

Apart from people with a fanatic love for Hindi film songs, mica, brooms and lakes this place is also well known for its Sainik School. The surroundings are lush green and beautiful and during the monsoons it really was a sight for sore eyes.

My visit to Jhumri Taliya, after being in love with her for almost four decades, was a short one but somehow I felt that the people who I came across were not aware of the (sound) waves this town had created in the sixties and seventies. As a tribute to this town I picked up couple of CD’s of songs from the seventies. The songs, the nostalgia, the monsoon, the ambience and the long drive back was really memorable. It was truly a childhood dream come true.

Sorry Shakespeare but there is a lot in a name especially if its Jhumri Talaiya.

Mumbai ki baarish aur ek cutting chai

This year she was more like your girl friend- late on a date. The unpredictability only added to the romance and when she arrived she overflowed with fun, frolic and emotions that just cannot be described. The flood-gates of joy and nostalgia simply opened up.

Of course there were those numerous hassles that come along with every girl friend I suppose. Parel, Andheri and Milan subways along with Hind Mata chowk promptly go under water. Schools close down. Central and Harbour line trains take hours to normalize. Bumper to bumper car drives become the norm.

But hey!! Who cares? Paush la padto and its time to rejoice with bhajiya, pakode, vadaa-pav and of course bheegte-bhagte Mumbai ki road side tapri mein doston ke saath ek cutting chai.
Chroniclers of history say that it was two thousand seven hundred thirty seven years before Christ was born that a few leaves of Camellia Sinennsis, found in abundance at the intersection of latitude 29 degrees North and 98 degrees East longitude, fell into a pot of boiling water. The legendary Chinese Emperor Shennong noticed the colour of water changing to brown and took the risk of drinking it.

Long before Neil Armstrong took his small step on the moon, Emperor Shennong took a small sip of this concoction. The rest, as they say, is history. One small sip by the Emperor led to a giant gulp by mankind and the world was never the same again.

Since then tea has traveled far and wide. It is said that King Charles II was coaxed into tasting this brew by his wife Catherine Braganza who had brought it along with her from Portugal (And they say dowry is an Indian concept!!). His Highness smacked his lips in appreciation and lo behold rest of Britain followed suit!! I have a sneaking suspicion that Britain conquered India not because it was then a land of milk and honey but because it was the land of milk, honey and tea- and not necessarily in the same order.

So obsessed are the British about their tea that it is said even in the middle of a war their troops stop shooting from the trenches. Once, seeing the sudden lull in the proceedings, the German soldiers shouted, “What’s the matter with you guys?” Pat came the reply, “It’s tea time folks, the war can wait.”

If you think tea was only for the taste buds just see what the Americans did. When they decided that they had enough of the British and their brand of Imperialism they declared their intent of independence by having a ‘Boston tea party”. The fishes in the Boston harbor sure had a whale of a time in a sea full of tea leaves! Aha.. the taste of liberty.

In India tea is part and parcel of our social ethos. You get up in the morning you need a cuppa tea. With breakfast you need another. Reach office- have one. Meeting starts have one more. Meeting prolongs have another round. Someone drops into your cabin have some more. You pop into someone’s cabin and there is an encore. Finally you reach home and say, “Ek cup ghar ki chai ho jaye.” Tea is in fact a convenient excuse for everything. And this is where India differs with the rest of the world. It forms the contextual background for arranged marriages, political alliances, boss bashing, spicy gossips or plain and simple adda baazi. There is a coffee chain in India that claims, “A lot can happen over coffee.” A good ad line. But tell you what let the copy-writer visit a road side tapri and he will realize that everything can happen over a cutting chai!!

Then there is chai, there is light chai, there is kadak chai, there is adrak wali chai, there is adrak-elaichi wali chai, there is masala chai, there is Irani chai, doodh wali chai, there is cutting chai, there is two by four chai with friends… the list is long and endless. However, it is the khadi chai that takes the cake. Taken mostly in rural belt it means you first put in so much sugar in your glass that your spoon actually stands on it without support!!

The most enchanting cup of tea I had was in the outskirts of Mangalore. It is known as KT chai. You first pour some milk in your glass. The tea is then poured delicately above it. The tea concoction is made in such a specification that it actually forms a layer on top of it!! With the help of a spoon you then have to mix both of them to get your desired glass of tea. Wonderful isn’t it?

Even as I write the rains in Mumbai have become a bit heavy. But as long as one has friends to accompany you to the road side tapri round the corner for a cutting chai who cares?

Rain Gods open your heart…. I am ready.

Hi Honey

It was a typical lazy Sunday afternoon in Mumbai. Kids were busy playing games and chatting. I was catching up with cricket on TV. Wife was cursing the delayed monsoons while doing this and that. I was weighing important strategic moves. Should I go for the chilled beer straight away? Or should I first help her in the kitchen, promise a late night film and then casually open the fridge?

That’s when the door bell rang.

The guy was selling what he claimed was pure honey. “How can we believe it’s pure?” I heard my wife enquiring skeptically.

“We will take it out in front of your own eyes madam,” was his reply.

Good marketing skills, I thought. Previously someone had tried selling a product by addressing her as aunty. He was promptly shooed away.

It turned out that Administration department had given a contract to local guys to burn out the numerous bee-hives that had sprouted under the roof-top of our building. The honey was then being tapped in front of everyone ensuring quality. The entire building was then advised to shut their windows and 'operation honey' began. A few hours later we had pure honey delivered at our front door.

'It’s yummy’, the kids said. Far from feeling good I felt bad. Thousands and thousands of bees had literally been smoked out. Their houses were raged and put on fire. Within a few minutes they were now homeless in Mumbai. Bitterness crept in.

Life was never meant to be fair but this was really-really-REALLY unfair. The facts that I pulled out made me feel even sadder. It’s one thing to say, ‘hard work’ its quite another thing to break it down further and see what constitutes their hard work. Just sample this:

· Bees from the same hive visit about 225,000 flowers per day.
· One single bee usually visits between 50-1000 flowers a day, but can visit up to several thousand.
· Queens will lay almost 2000 eggs a day at a rate of 5 or 6 a minute. Between 175,000-200,000 eggs are laid per year.
· Just a single hive contains approximately 40-45,000 bees!
· During honey production periods, a bee's life span is about 6 weeks.
· Honeybees visit about 2 million flowers to make one pound of honey.
· A bee travels an average of 1600 round trips in order to produce one ounce of honey;
· To produce 2 pounds of honey, bees travel a distance equal to 4 times around the earth.

Then the bees too are divided into two groups. The field workers and the home workers. The field workers suck in the nectar from the flowers and do a mouth to mouth transfer of the nectar on to the home workers. The nectar which has up to 80% moisture/water is then dried out through a complex procedure and converted to honey. It requires hours and hours and hours and hours of hard work and plenty of patience.

After all this hard work what do the bees get in return? Nothing. Absolutely nothing!! Not only is their honey stolen but their house (actually the word hive disturbs the conscience the least) is also melted and used to make lipsticks and candles.

Now do you realsie why the kiss is chooo sweet and candle light dinners with your honey so romantic?

But are the bees alone in this tragedy? Does it not happen to people most of time around us. Haven’t we too felt like a bee a hundred times over during our professional career? Does the guy who works the hardest gets the raise or the promotion?Clearly, doing hard work is not enough. In life one must also know the trick of protecting ones hard work from evil eyes of co-workers and competitors. Many a times it is others who project the work you have done and get the reward that was due to you.

There is an air of defeatism in the teaching of Gita when it says, “Karm kiye jaa, phal ki ichha mat kar..’ This philosophy is OK as long as someone else does not take a piggy back ride on your hard work and claim success. Preventing others from taking advantage of your own hard work should also be part of ones strategy.

Compared to the sweet honey, I somehow felt that the bitter beer tasted better that Sunday afternoon.

What say honey?