Chae ka Cup

Chae Ka Cup
[In English: Tea Cup]

A cup filled up to the brim with strong, black tea; a dash of milk, and no sugar. To be served while really hot. That’s how he liked his tea. My grand mother or my mother use to make and give my father his morning tea till my siblings and I were old enough to play as the substitutes. This was a classic morning ritual in our household.

My father’s prized asset was the antique Victorian tea-cup he bought to enrich his daily ritual. The tea cup was a standalone piece that later came to be known as “Abbu kee chae ka cup” or sometimes just “Abbu ka cup”. It was a cream-colored tea cup that had hand painted golden pattern all over with multi-colored motifs on each side.

‘Chae ka cup’ had no substitute. Every time my father was served tea, it would be in his ‘Chae ka cup’; with guests around or during his trips to the hospital, Chae ka cup went everywhere with my father. The only time it was left behind when he would travel outside the city for fear of damaging it.

‘Chae ka cup’ was given a special place in our kitchen. It was placed at the top shelf next to the tea pot. While all other tea cups remained concealed behind blue colored aluminum cabinets, ‘Chae ka cup’ enjoyed high visibility and high accessibility over its peers.

My mother never fussed about my father’s preferences for antiques nor the tea ritual that had been in practice for over 3 decades. The only issue she fussed over was my father’s habit of taking too much tea. He loved his tea; 3 cups of tea was a pre-requisite to kick start his day. She gave up fussing the day she realized that the children in the family were marching into their father’s footsteps. Each child had to have their own tea-cup that later converted in to distinctive tea-MUGS, much to her dismay. All for one and one for all!

‘Chae ka cup’ has been moved to a more premium visibility but low accessibility location now. It sits behind a thick glass wall, next to its more colorful, baby-boomer cousins, Noritek, inside an antique cupboard. The cupboard and the ‘chae ka cup’ seem to complement each other well. Both have served their owners well and have loved the attention during the heydays.

An occasional glance at ‘Chae ka cup’ rings a familiar sound in my head and it leaves me smiling. ‘Chae ka cup’ has earned that special place. It’s a place which is irreplaceable and makes it an asset of memorable values.

Here is to the smaller rituals of people you loved and wished would never go,
The small rituals which leave there first impressions,
which grow on you as you get to know the person behind the rituals.
The small rituals you’re remembered for among your dear ones
and that make a person.
The small rituals, which are passed on,
Remembered and missed the most when you are no longer around.

KD
Forever loved-Forever missed
(June 22,1944-Oct 10,2005)



Author’s Note: This is neither an ode to tea-drinkers nor to tea cups, tea or anything related to tea. This is an ode to my father as I mark the 3rd year of his departure to a ‘better place’.

It’s an ode to one of his everyday rituals. There were too many but all rituals cannot be recorded in a post owing to:
(a) Low reader interest in subjects of personal nature
(b) Emotional clutter
(c) Poor memory
(d) All of the above