Taking Tea on Roadsides

Taking Tea on Roadsides

'Teetotaller' is a term whose meaning is “the person who totally depends on tea”. Oh dear, don’t turn your head towards a lexicon because all of them have erred on this matter. The true meaning is what I have told you. No dictionary can challenge the wisdom of a Bihari and I am one of them.

Yes, taking tea on roadside has a great significance. I remember that I could not clear UPSC exam only because I was not a regular visitor of Roadside Tea-booth. Some of those in my group who did so, passed. Yes, if they can pass this exams by resolving the intricate academic issues at JNU tea stall located at street roadsides, why can’t  I who had access to numerous dilapidated tea stalls at big main roads of Patna.

You know how to sit and of course, how to remain standing in a most space-efficient manner if you are on a roadside stall. You know how you need to be alert all the time just like a soldier at Indo-Pak border. Protruding well inside the borders of footpath is most common for the vehicles of Bihar. 

Everything goes side-by-side. You show alacrity, you show

your practical knowledge of spatial economy, you let the whole world benefit by your really "out of the box" solutions of delicate problems pestering the humankind. You sip tea and solution of all issues spring up from your tongue just like a fired bullet. View of beautiful fuming panorama and escalation of your hygienic resistance are added advantages.

Beyond any caste, creed and class, cronyism evolves in its pure natural form as all of your chums get together on that spot in a most unconstructed manner. The manager-cum-frash (glass- cleaner) is compelled to learn one extremely difficult skill i.e. Debt Management . He upholds the flag of ‘Single Entry System’ of Accounting in his books called “udhaar khaata”.

If a particular buddy disappears without any notice for a considerable number of days, you come to know that his account has fattened and one who is visible day and night there even after his tea-sipping ceremony, you get to know that the atmosphere in his home is very precarious nowadays. I am yet to understand why people see the tea-booth visitors with suspicion and relate them with men of dubious character. After all, they can’t close their eyes on a sight of eves who prefer their ways deliberately beside these tea-stalls to many shorter routes.