Indeed, there is nothing better than ‘Chai’ and ‘Parle G’
Life is about living one day at a time. Whether we like it not, whether we accept it or not, but all of us get into a specific routine at different times in our lives. When we are at home, our routine circles around our school life and is usually very disciplined: getting up in the morning, taking a bath, packing your bag( if of course, you have not packed it the previous night), going to school, coming back, studying, playing, and then sleeping again. This goes on for 17 years of our lives and then we move to college which just messes up the entire definition of routine in our lives. But then after the four-five best years of our lives, we tend to get a job and we are back in the routine-circle.
Routines are made up of the pettiest things that we do daily. It might be as trivial as taking the stairs except of the escalator or something as noble as going to an old-age home every weekend. Some of us may develop oddities in our food habits – like a friend of mine loved having curd with bread –while some others may develop eccentric lifestyle choices like walking naked around the house.
The amusing thing about routines is that, and well Facebook has provided us with enough proof in those innumerable picture trolls beginning with: that awkward feeling when…, that all those experiences which we thought were unique to us are really not, and that everyone tends to have similar ones. So, the amusing thing about routines is that some parts of our daily lives overlap with those of others. From singing in the bathroom, carrying our newspaper to the loo (nowadays mobile phones) to stuffing our mouths with chips when we are having them alone, or studying only on the last day before the exam, human beings even from different cultural backgrounds have developed a few common social habits.
Indians have many such amusing habits. From never understanding the concept of queues to spitting on roads and jumping that red light, we show our severe disregard for rules. Off late, I have started to think that there is something fundamentally wrong with our intellect when it comes to comprehending and following government rules. Leaving the rules and the greasing of palms aside, we Indians tend to do a lot of other funny things. We stare at foreigners, we love to gossip, we deny it but we are inherently racist (and usually towards our own countrymen), hard work is subjected to individuals but on the over-all we tend to be lazy and laid back, we love our marriages and we love our families and have an inherent ego on our value system that makes us different from the western world.
Indians have many such amusing habits. From never understanding the concept of queues to spitting on roads and jumping that red light, we show our severe disregard for rules. Off late, I have started to think that there is something fundamentally wrong with our intellect when it comes to comprehending and following government rules.
Attitude aside, we have peculiar food habits too. No matter how rich and sophisticated we get, we love to eat out of our hands. And no matter how many different cuisines we try and inculcate in our daily lives, nothing beats ghar ka khana for us. And tea, our favourite chai, well, we are a proud nation of tea-drinkers! Come rainy season and every Indian develops an irresistible craving for samosas and chai. The smell of fried samosas with that hot tea on a rainy afternoon, or the home made pakoras with chai! It beats the best Irish coffee out there. Tea has become such an integral part of our daily lives, of our existence, that the start of our every morning is unimaginable without that cup of warm tea. And come four o’ clock and we all have that sudden craving for our evening dose of caffeine.
For most of us that evening cup of tea goes unsavoured without our favourite biscuits. And it goes without saying that nothing compliments Indian tea better than Parle-G biscuits. Full of glucose and sweetness and that yum taste when you dip your Parle-G in your cup of tea and savour it as you bite into its gooey softness. Hmmm…yum.
And what is so fascinating about this common habit across the country, is that people of all ages relish the taste of Parle-G with tea. Every single one of us from little kids to old people with no teeth, we all love Parle-G. And the new advertisement says it better than me. Indeed there is nothing better than Chai and Parle G!
