‘I always come here’: Indian tea working on trust Characteristics

SeramPore, India – It’s warm morning in March, and the 65-year-old ashy Bandopadhyay cyclarded 10 minutes from his home in a tea shop in the neighborhood in Chatro, about 30km (19 miles) from Kolkata.

Trained in a pastel pink polo shirt, the ashetry takes responsibility for the store, declaring that his “turn” is to start him today. “I’m not working here,” he explains with a smile until the milk package is opened while preparing for the crowd fresh pot cha (Bengali tea). “I’m just an old man and a customer who loves volunteering.”

Located in the old part of the city, this hole in the wall shop is locally known as the Shomer Cha Er Probery (Idesh Shome Teafouse). In India, the process of preparation and sharing of tea is formed by an important part of social bonds.

And that is what this is this tea shop. It was already a space for relaxation, conversation and common moments. But it takes a social bond step further: customers don’t only drink tea but also beer and serving.

Ashish, who now withdrew from his office deal with a building company, visited this tea trade, because he was 10 years old. There is aware of friends to grab a cup of tea.

Every working day in the morning of the 60-year-old Owner Ashok Chakroborty opens the store and then goes for his office work.

“One of us takes control of the store’s run until time returns in the evening. Today he was my turn,” Ashish says. All in all, there are 10 volunteers who turn into operation in the store seven days a week. None is paid – most are volunteer-buyers who retired, retired and received a retirement of their former employers.

Today, Ashish arrived at the shop at 9 am and closed for lunch at noon. He turned at 3 p.m. “If not every day, I prefer to stay here for most of the week. After my departure, another person enters my role,” he says.

There is no fixed rota – “whosoever whether it’s free,” explains Ashish. “We keep cash in a wooden box on the shelf after use to buy milk or sugar. And there was no day without a carer.”

Legacy of Naresh Chandra Shome

She changed a little in 100 years, five-foot tea went – except for a few white pedestrians and ceiling repairs, “ashpire.

The tea still serves in the cups of clay, as well as paper, with a filler that cost only five rupees (approximately $ 0.06).

The store offers a modest tea menu with simple, direct options. Customers can choose between milk tea – with or without sugar – and black tea served by a plain or with lemon, or a cheese cha (black tea with spices). Jars biscuits complete the store offers.

Located across Chat Kali Babu’s crematorium, family members often come for tea after saying goodbye to loved ones.

The store was founded by Naresh Chandra Shome, which worked for Brooke Bond, a tea company that form its roots in the colonial era in India. All Ashok, the current owner, knows for the shoma from that period is that he left the job to become a fighter for freedom.

After the Indian independence from the British rule in 1947. He joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and remained an active member to death in 1995. years of age 77 years. His tea shop served as a gathering place, sitting and exchanging ideas about cups of tea.

Today, the tea machine is sitting in the following doors in the local CPI (M) office. “Shoma was a useful man and was active in the community service. He was known then and now. There is a photo in the party office,” says Prashanto Mondal, 54, a regular customer in a kitchen shop.

It reminds you how the colleague was brought to the shop in the shop for the first time.

“There are many eater booths in Serapuru, but I always come here, almost daily, due to the unique atmosphere of trade and feeling of Camaraderie,” Explains the LPG gas supply agent.

After the tea end, Prashanto will help to help the ashes fill the carbon in the oven. As Prashanto, most customers help in duties such as retrieving milk from the nearby shop or filling water.

“We heard the stories of Naresh Shome during his activist days,” says Ashish. “Sometimes he would suddenly left the Urgite Service store in the community, always asking them to take care of his customers. I believe that that legacy has endured the hotel in the absence of the owner – test time.”

From the colonial past to Bengali Adda and Cha

Around 1925. Years, Shoma opened tea on the ground floor of a building owned by his aunt. But before the gathering of tea and conversation drinks, the 350-year building on the coasts Hooghly River is located various types of shops, including the one who sold accessories.

It seems that the exposed wood beams on the ceiling bear the weight of history. The thick limestone walls stand like silent witnesses to many Bengali, Danish and English people who have passed over the years. The store looks towards Chatra Ghat (the stairs leading to the river), where Hindus went their dead generations. Now a modern electric crematorium has taken place in traditional wood piro.

The city of Serampore, the home for about 200,000 people, transmits the Western Bengal capital of Kolkta in several centuries, and occasionally there were Dani and British. The city was the Danish shopping settlement called Frederiksnagore from 1755. Until 1845. years, until the British took over, remaining until independence in 1947.

Once, the carriages driven by horse transported European officers and their families along the streets. Today, envoys are busy motorcycles, electric rickshaws and cars. Buildings in European style are in addition to the high apartment complexes built in newer decades.

The local activist for renewing Mohit Ranadip explains that the tea machine holds an important position in the cultural history of Serapura. Ranadip is a member of the initiative for the restoration of Serapurnary heritage, the local body that led the citizen dedicated to preserving and promoting the city’s sailing.

“Add and parallatura The money are still very relevant to the (Chatar) site and maybe that is the reason for which the tea shop is still so popular,” he says.

In the western Bengal, parallatura pair is easy to relate to the neighborhood or site, defined by a strong sense of community. Each pair inevitably has its additional place – angle of street, park or, indeed, a tea shop. Adda is a loved party that is unique for Western Bengal. It is considerably different from just a small conversation or conversation, best described as an informal group conversation that is long, liquid and relaxed in nature. The cha-e cup always binds these rallies together.

In the Neighborhood in Chatro, Naresh Shome’s tea is the focus for this additional tradition, attracting people from all the layers of life to converge and share their daily experiences in a tea tea tea.

Prashanto and his colleagues, Karthick and Amal, discussed the remaining gas cylinders they had to make by the end of the day. Some came on their own for fast tea. Customers who fell in the evening were more relaxed, like Anima Kar, who came with his daughter to face his brother.

The state of the bend of the West Bengal with tea also takes deep. About 600km north of Seramponer, the tea industry took the root in Darjeeling hills in the middle of the 19th century during the British paradise. The first commercial nets were established in Darjeeling and surrounding areas. Emerald Green Tea Nekretnine Darjeeling continues to produce some of the most expensive tea in the world.

At around 6 pm, as evening sets, Ashok returns from his clerical job. Carrying a shirt olive, he took from ashes, inconspicuously continuing the daily rhythm of the store.

Ashok is a ljet lakhirani dakhi, owner of the building. He was in charge of the action of Shome’s death.

“Today, I’m ashed to me (brother) He gave me 400 rupees ($ 4.65) as an income day,” Ashok says, while pouring tea in the clay cups. He says he never faced any problems with customers who do not pay; Without failure, they always leave the correct quantity for tea in the cash register or return later to pay what they owe.

“For most days we sell about 200 cups,“He adds.

“Question to the future”

“I love tea with Masala (seasoned mixture) made by Ashok Yes,” says 50-year-old animes, which is a buyer for years. “If Kolkata has a cafe in which people meet for a certain time and adde, Well, this teacup is our modest equivalent.”

Anim used to come with his father when she was a child and remembering Shome. Now, she sometimes visits her family. “The teapin remains a lasting symbol of tradition, live in the community and love for tea. Every morning and evening people are not attracted not only by tea, but also a deep sense of affiliation and joint history,” says Anima.

At 9 pm, Ashok Forces the last pot of tea for four remaining customers and prepares to call him a day.

In recent years, it started to take care of the future of your iconic store.

“I doubt whether the younger generation will convey this care that nurtured the legacy of trust. There are very few visitors from the younger generation that come and participate in tea trade,” he says.

His son, says Ashok, the engineer and did not show much interest in the shop.

Restoration activist Ranadip shares your concerns: “The younger generation is so busy to have a little time for the addition, which seriously asks the question to the future like this.”

Despite the uncertain future of the store, Ashok remains hopes that others will move forward to preserve it, just like the previous generations. “I decide to stay optimistic that trade will continue his legacy, because it is so many years,” Ashok says.