Ah, for a fresh chai...

The more you become well off, the more you get cut off from what matters

What matters is a hot cup of tea, with ginger, made with fresh milk. 

It is very easy to get at any roadside thapri. Guy makes wonderful tea in front of your eyes, you have it hot, and you pay ten rupees.

Now shift that scene to a hotel, imagine a few stars with the name.

You have dip dip bags kept in the room. Dip dip chai is like dishwater so let's not even talk about it.

If you order room service , by the time it comes, it will be cold. So let's go to the coffee shop.

You go to the coffee shop and order "freshly made " ginger tea. Now here's the thing. As you go up on the social ladder, the definition of "fresh" is stretched. What you are likely to get is tea made sometime in the last one hour and kept in a thermos. So you return it, and demand that they make it "fresh". 

This time they get it. They make some fresh tea and get it for you. But it is not the same. It is just not the same.

I am at a hotel in Surat now, having breakfast , and this story is repeating itself for the umpteenth time.

I intend to stop on the way to the office at a thapri.

Ah, for a fresh chai...