A cup of winter’s tea
A polar blast with winter comes,
I need a tea at
noon,
My frozen hands
begin to thaw
My mind awakens soon
Not just the waft
of cardamom
Or sugar rushing
fast,
The tea frees up my
heart to feel
Winters from the
past
Calcutta’s cold or
Bombay’s bite,
Winters fuelled by
tea,
How many cities
wake anew
In gingered memory
See the sea of emerald
green
Tea gardens,
Darjeeling
A Himachal tent wakes
with tea
While the Munias
sing
Tea with sambar
sour and sweet
The backwaters,
they gleam
By a shanty tent
on Teesta’s way
In another Himalayan
dream
Tea with fritters,
winter-drenched
In the many ghats
of west,
At 2am on a Goanese
shack,
There is no sense
of haste
And many more
drops of tannin gold
For the places
still to go,
From Lahaul, Spiti
to Havelock’s white
Sip them warm and
slow
My cup, here south,
has emptied now
The dregs though full
of zeal,
Home comes back in
a cup of tea
And warm the winters
feel
And yet, this cup
is always full -
The brew of bygone
days
Comes back to keep
us cosy-warm
In the winter of
our ways…
9th
June’23
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