Meet The Chaiwallahs Of India

A hot cup of tea can do way more than just quench your thirst, it can nourish your soul too... We met two people who’ve devoted their life to documenting tea-making in India!

After their Fulbright fellowships ended, Zack Marks and Resham Gellatly went back to work in the United States — Zach was a consultant for McKinsey and Resham did psychiatry research at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. But India and chai was always on their minds one day in 2012, they both decided to give up their jobs and return to tell the stories of chaiwallahs around our country.

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FHM: How did you go about starting this project?

Chaiwallahs: We lived in Delhi for the Fulbright fellowships from 2010-2011 and during that year, we travelled all around India. We were fascinated by the fact that everywhere we went, there was chai and behind every cup of chai was a chaiwallah. In a country with such tremendous diversity, it was exciting to discover that chai is a common thread uniting India. That’s what got us thinking about this idea.

FHM: What was/is the ultimate aim of starting this project? And what is its future?

Chaiwallahs: We want to learn various chaiwallahs’ stories, compile them and bring them to light, so people can see the diversity and unity of chaiwallahs across the country. The ultimate aim is to entertain readers with these stories and perhaps, in doing so, people will be compelled to have more friendly social interactions with their local chaiwallah as well as strangers in general. In the long run, we are working to turn our stories and photographs into a book.

FHM: In which parts of India have you had the best chai?

Chaiwallahs: That is a tough question. The place with the best roadside chai in India may be Kolkata, if for no other reason than the fact that chaiwallahs still use earthenware pots there. We also found the chaiwallahs in Kolkata to be quite discerning about the tea they use. Whereas many of them in other parts of the country only buy packaged branded tea, Kolkata’s chaiwallahs usually buy their own blend of loose tea from a local wholesaler, sometimes even mixing in Darjeeling fannings or leaves.

FHM: What are the key insights that came out of your research of chaiwallahs?

Chaiwallahs: One of the things we found most interesting is how you can learn a lot about a place simply by examining its chaiwallahs. In South Indian cities like Chennai, you will find many enterprising women running tea stalls on their own, day and night. Compare this to a city like Delhi, where it is much less common to see a female chaiwalli operating a stand on her own without at least a husband or brother present. This phenomenon seems to reflect the matriarchal society that exists in Tamil Nadu and the lack of public safety for women in Delhi.

FHM: How do these chaiwallahs differ from each other, especially when they serve/sell the same end product?

Chaiwallahs: We’ve been surprised to find that many chaiwallahs don’t actually think too much about differentiating themselves from the competition. We did a fun experiment on a crowded street in Kolkata where there were ten chaiwallahs all lined up in a row. We asked each of them how they were different than the others. If you asked most business people that question, they would have a sales pitch ready, but of the ten, eight said there was no difference and they all simply shared the business and saw one another as neighbours and friends more than competitors. Of the two who said they were different, one said he had a special recipe for lemon tea with black pepper and kala namak. The other said he doesn’t just serve tea to customers, he entertains them, and he broke out in a song and dance.

FHM: What are the threats these vendors face as of today, and may potentially face in the coming years?

Chaiwallahs: When we started this research we wanted to explore the threat posed by the emergence of western-style coffeeshops like CCD and Starbucks in India, but we’ve found that most Indians feel there isn’t much of a threat since they provide such a different experience than a chai stand. It’s rare that people would replace their ₹5 cup of chai with a Rs 100 Frappucino, and they will probably just get both depending on the time and their need.

FHM: Do you have a favourite chaiwallah?

Chaiwallahs: One of our favourite chaiwallahs is a man named Laxman Rao, who runs a tea stall outside Hindi Bhavan in Delhi. He sells chai and biscuits like most chaiwallahs, but he also sells books that he has written himself and self-published. He came to Delhi from his village in Maharashtra 40 years ago to make it as a writer and he has made it on his own terms, as he has written 24 books in Hindi.

From the February 2014 issue of FHM India.