Why to avoid Tea ???
Chay! Chay!” The calls of tea vendors echo through India’s train stations at any time, whether it be two o’clock in the morning or ten at night. The vendors are always busy selling tea through train windows. Sometimes they climb aboard a train and get off at another station, sure that tea addicts will buy a cup. The voices wake the passengers, reminding them of their daily need, urging them to take a cup of hot tea. “One rupee!” the vendor says. Drinking tea is not part of our Vedic culture. The British introduced tea in 1834, after they had conquered India. Once I asked my grandmother, “Dadiji, did you always drink tea?” “No,” she replied, somewhat embarrassed. When she was a child, her father, a well-known attorney in town, would not permit tea in the house except to offer British friends. To keep up with the English “sahibs,” however, Indians in the last century have gradually adopted tea as part of our daily lives. Indian households restricted tea because it is