Chai Pilgrimage

CHAI • SHAI \ CHI-SHI\

1. Chai (tea) & all the paraphenelia attached to a tea service. In Pakistan and India, this includes street food, such as samosas & pakoras.

2. Also used to describe a social gathering place, a time for interesting conversation & even better food!

The first time I bit into one of Chai Shai’s fresh veggie samosas I felt like I was home, though I’m not from Pakistan, nor have I ever even been there.  But the hot, crispy potato and peas samosa, served up with some homemade mint-cilantro chutney and washed down with a steaming cup of masala chai, instantly transported me back simultaneously to all the many rapturous gastronomic travel moments experienced on a railway platform, or a nameless street, somewhere in the middle of Northern India – a non-specific dreamy place of comfort that always dwells in my heart and stomach.  Whoa man!  I’m not in Kansas anymore.  But, actually I was.  Well, in Kansas City, Missouri anyway, of all places, sitting at a corner chai shop in a tree-lined, residential neighborhood eating Pakistani street food.  Brilliant.

When I met the Tufail brothers, Abdul and Kashif, they were chilling out at the end of a long, busy day about a month after their shop had opened.  Chai lover that I am, I sat, still in a state of blissful shock, having discovered that there was now a chai shop only three blocks away from the place I stay when I’m working in KC.  Talk about creating your own reality.  As we chatted, Abdul reminisced about waking in Lahore, lighting up a cigarette, and strolling down to the local chai shop and just sitting around and visiting with friends for hours sharing conversation and drinking chai.  I could not help but recall parallel memories of sitting on the steps at the edge of the Ganga in Banaras with Indian friends, sipping chai (without the cigarette), people watching and talking about this and that.  Yes, this is it.  These guys have brought that place here, transplanting the seed of chai culture to the middle of America, and the experience that naturally goes with it.

Kashif and his mother, Aasma

Now every time I’m in KC, I visit Chai Shai for a bit of home cookin’ and Eastern hospitality.  Since that first visit, Kashif, the café solid rock and front man, has always stopped what he is doing to greet me and take time out of his bustling day for a bit of conversation.  He sincerely welcomes me as a friend and even, perhaps unknowingly, makes me feel like family.  Just like the book Three Cups of Tea illustrates, after you have sat and had chai with someone a few times, and converse from a place of heart, you are family.

Chai Shai was conceived when the Tufails found a commercial kitchen space with the intention of making wholesale samosas for local Indian and Pakistani shops around KC – an expansion of their well-established, home-based cottage industry.  After securing their space, which in its previous incarnation was a restaurant, neighbors started peeking in to see the new business and encouraged them to sell their samosas on site to eat.  So they thought they would expand to sell some Pakistani street food – pakoras, chaat, samosas, and some chai to go with it – the basics.  After sustained prodding from their growing customer base, they have now blossomed into a full-on restaurant and mini grocery, with a broadened menu offering lunch and dinners.  There is a metal-shelved wall of imported dry goods:  basmati, dhal, ghee, spices, tea, parle-g’s, condiments, you name it — all the staples the local Pakistani and Indian students from the nearby UMKC campus, as well as us Indo-food enthusiasts, would need.

Aasma Tufail

The last time I visited KC, the café had been established for a year and a half, and I was finally blessed with the opportunity to sit and have lunch with Aasma, the Tufail matriarch and mother of all who feast on her authentic Pakistani cuisine.  She spoke of living in Pakistan as a school teacher, bringing her children to America for a better life, making samosas at home with her children when they were just toddlers, and the joy of having her two sons and daughter all living and working close together as a family.  What more could a mother want?  And her service to the local community extends beyond providing exotic comfort food.  Aasma and her family offer a rare place on the planet where people from all walks can gather and share some chai and savory snacks or a meal together and simply talk.  Like it says at the top of their chalk menu board: “Salaam means Peace!”

Ayurveda is the ancient science of India that teaches we are all a part of Nature.  As Nature, we are in a living relationship with everything around us.  Each moment, we are being affected by everything in our environment.  By recognizing environmental influences and adjusting our lifestyle accordingly, we can create a healthy balance within our being.

Nature remains in balance through opposites.  Light roots take hold in the heavy Earth.  An active day must be followed by deep sleep.  Ayurveda teaches that there are 20 universal qualities composed of pairs of opposites: heavy-light, dull-sharp, cold-hot, oily-dry, smooth-rough, liquid-dense, soft-hard, stable-active, subtle-gross and clear-cloudy.

As Nature, we are subject to the same universal laws that like qualities increase like and opposite qualities balance. In the midday heat of a summer day, for example, the hot quality of the blazing sun increases our own temperature – like increases like.  If we are frantically running around town doing errands, eating a drive-by burrito in the car will not calm our anxiety like a quiet, sit-down meal at home – opposites balance.

FALL SEASON AND VATA

Fall season, especially in the New Mexico mountains where we live, is the perfect expression of what is called Vata in Ayurveda.  Vata is the energy of movement composed of the air and space elements.  It expresses the qualities dry, light, cold, rough, subtle, active and clear.  These qualities are apparent in the Fall as the temperature start to drop, the earth and air become drier, plants freeze and dry up, the winds blow and animals either migrate or move underground.   Nature begins Her inhalation of life from summer into winter.

These environmental changes can affect our physical and mental bodies.  As the wind blows, we may experience anxiety and disturbed sleep.  Our skin may become as dry and rough as the cracked earth.  We can get cold hands and feet as the cold enters our circulation.  Fall is a time when many Vata aggravations occur such as cracking joints, sciatica, spasms, anxiety, arthritic pain, constipation and insomnia. The current state of our health is usually an accurate indication of how balanced we are with Nature.

WHAT TO DO?

By following Natural law, we can maintain balance within ourselves by applying opposite qualities to those present at this time.  Keeping a regular routine is the best way to stabilize Vata’s constant mobility.  Fall is the time to slow down with warm tea, meditation, gentle yoga, hot baths and plenty of sleep.  It is important to stay warm and protect oneself from the wind.  Like Mother said, dress warm, cover your ears and neck and do not go out in the cold with a wet head.  According to Ayurveda, warm sesame oil is the perfect remedy for Vata.  Self-oil-massage before a hot bath or shower can balance out the dry and cold qualities and shield us from the elements.

Drinking a large amount of warm water upon waking in the morning will re-hydrate the body and get the bowels moving.  Ginger tea is a great beverage choice to stay warm and to keep the blood circulating all the way down to the toes.  Hot milk before bed can help calm the nerves and overcome insomnia.  Incorporating a good dose of healthy oils into the diet helps lubricate dryness from the inside.  Warm, mushy, well-cooked foods will balance the cold, dry, rough qualities of the season.  Lightness in the body and mind can be balanced with eating heavier foods like organic dairy products, grounding root vegetables, nut butters, heavy grains and fresh-harvested winter squash.  To encourage proper digestion and warmth, cook with spices like ginger, garlic, pepper, fennel, coriander, cumin, turmeric, cinnamon and salt.

And chai?  Well, the change of season, upcoming holidays and cold winds are likely to take their toll on the nervous system, so cutting down on excessive caffeine intake can help promote calm.  But sitting down and slowly sipping an extra-warming cup of milky, gingery masala chai with some cardamom and cinnamon (and a little less tea) can be the best medicine to keep our internal fires burning warm and bright through the cold seasons.  By practicing awareness of the external influences in our life, we can attune our diet and lifestyle to reflect a balance with the One.

Jenny created this Taj mostly from memory — Security only allowed a pencil and held her markers, pens and paints at the gate.

The Taj Mahal is an opulent architectural eulogy expressing the Emperor Shah Jahan’s love for the most beloved of his wives.  The untimely death of Mumtaz Mahal occurred while giving birth to her 14^th child.  Undoubtedly, that feat alone justified employing 20,000 workers over 22 years to construct this 17^th century world wonder.

Millions of visitors come to marvel the marble masterpiece each year, which is why on previous visits to India, we avoided it.  But admittedly, in the presence of such profound man-made beauty, we found that all we could do was spend hours staring at it and taking photos like everyone else.  We sat in wonderment, surrounded by the elaborate, well-groomed gardens hemmed in by reflective pools with fountains.  We were utterly hypnotized by its mere enormity and meticulously detailed Mughal architecture, with its smooth, pure-white marble curves, ornate floral design inlays of semiprecious gemstones and the exterior black marble calligraphy quoting verses from the Holy Qur’an.

Although we were able to have chai delivered to us while waiting in line at 5:30 in the morning, we were shocked that there was none available inside.  And as all good things must end, my body’s call for its afternoon tea necessitated our departure.

The Central Government of India pumps hoards of money into Sikkim’s roadway infrastructure because its border with China compels them to keep a formidable military presence.  Most of the main roads are paved and well maintained so that armed vehicles can move freely throughout the state.  This, however, does not exactly make it safe to drive in Sikkim.

The lower Himalaya topography is “hilly” (their hills are like our mountains), thus the roads must conform to curvaceous canyon slopes.  The superior quality of the roads makes it easier to drive fast, unlike the dilapidated mountain “roads” throughout the rest of Northern India.  More than once, we found ourselves racing through the Himalayas around tight curves in overloaded jeeps driven by wanna-be stunt drivers.

Traveling by road there can make the most iron stomach carsick while at the same time inspire one to contemplate their mortality.  But, if one is surrendered to the belief that their moment of death is already predetermined, they can enthusiastically look out the window and take visual pleasure in the magnificent vertical drop-offs just inches from the jeep’s tires into the sheer faced ravines.  There are no distracting guardrails to block the line of site!

To make sure that drivers are aware of their responsibility to preserve the lives of their passengers, there are lyrical road safety signs on the side of the road.  They apparently go unnoticed or are completely ignored by the drivers, but provide ironic entertainment value to passengers with a dark sense of humor like myself.

Road is hilly, don’t be silly

No race, no rally, enjoy the beauty of the valley

This is a highway, not a runway

Be soft on my curves

If married, divorce speed

Faster will see disaster

Slow drive, long life

Fast won’t last

No need for over speed

Speed thrills but kills

Hurry makes worry

Arrive home in peace not in pieces

Namaste everyone!  After taking an extended break from posting, we’re back, chai’d up and ready for a long winter in the mountains brewing up some musings on masala chai, India and Nepal and anything else related to sipping tea and travel.  We hope to provide you with some interesting bits of delight, yummy enough to make you want to snuggle up with your laptop and a cup of hot chai.

While we were not maintaining our blog or finally bringing our chai book to completion, we have been busy doing other creative things…

Jenny enthusiastically welcomed the release of her picture book, Same, Same but Different with a book tour through schools, libraries and bookstores from New Mexico to NYC.   Click HERE to read a description of her book, reviews, and more! You can order it from countless sites on line, at your local, independent bookstore, or check it out from the library.

While Tulsi and I tended the homestead and cooked up the house chai this summer, Jenny was on a painting marathon, illustrating an entire oracle deck. The Mother’s Wisdom Deck will be released with Sterling Ethos in time for Mother’s Day, 2012.

And the Chai Pilgrimage book?  Yes!  Goddess-willing, we are spending our winter/spring bringing this project to completion!  We hope that instead of people completely losing interest in our book project, we are actually building up an OCEAN of anticipation that will propel the chai book with the same power as Hanuman-ji himself flying around the world placing it into the hands of eager readers!

Thank you to everyone who has ordered Archival Prints of the Nine Spices, Tea Deva and Ganesha in the last several months! Many more prints will be available with the release of our book!

So stay tuned! AND join us on our new Facebook Page, and please share it with all your chai-loving, world-travelin’, India-longing friends!

There are many factors to consider when selecting masala chai spices.  Earlier we discussed how the Gunas, or qualities, that are inherent in the spices determine the effect that it will have on our being.  But there is another level of quality that is paramount when we embark on making a deliciously healthy cup of chai – good quality.  As the vendors in India often touted, “cheapesht and besht!”

When possible, choose the highest quality, freshest, organic, whole spices that are available to you.  From an Ayurvedic standpoint, high quality in a spice means that it full of Prana, or life force.  If we use Prana-full spices, our chai will come alive, and if we use old, stale, powdered, dead spices, the end result will reflect this.

Within a plant, Prana is the living intelligence that is transferred to our body upon ingestion and digestion.  This botanical intelligence is what communicates to our cellular intelligence how to go about healing itself.  To protect the life force of the spices, it is important to keep the spice in tact, in its whole form, until we are ready to place it into the simmering water that will extract its Prana.  The easiest way to do this is by purchasing whole spices instead of powder: fresh ginger root, whole cardamom pods, cinnamon sticks, peppercorns, etc.  When we use spices that have been pulverized on the other side of the world months or years ago and then sit on the shelf for just as long, the Prana, and with it the flavor and healing potential, has escaped by the process of oxidation.  For this reason it is also beneficial to store spices in airtight glass, porcelain or tin containers, preferably in a relatively cool, dark location in your kitchen.

It may seem like a lot of trouble to crush your own spices, but it really takes only a few minutes.  The best tools to have are a mortar and pestle, a coffee/spice grinder and a cheese grater.  Indian chai wallahs will often just use a rock to smash the spices.  We have heard of saddhus that will simply crush the spices in their teeth, but for hygiene reasons, we do not recommend this. Personally, we use a cheese grater for the ginger, the electric coffee grinder for the cardamom (which is very hard) and a mortar and pestle for everything else.

Another benefit to processing the spices manually is that your own energy, or Prana, is infused into the spices as you crush them.  This is where chai making becomes alchemical and you can transmute your chai into a golden prayer for your friends and family.

Traditional masala chai spices assist in increasing the body’s Prana in another way.  Ginger, cinnamon, cardamom and other chai spices support the function of the lungs, thereby allowing you to absorb more elemental air Prana through the breath.  In addition, almost all of the spices are digestives that help the body to assimilate nutritive Prana from food.  And many of the heating chai spices act to burn up toxins in the body, thus clearing away unwanted sludge that impedes the flow of healing Prana through the channels of the body.

Ayurveda, “ the knowledge of life,” is the ancient healing system from India that illuminates how an understanding of one’s interconnectedness with the natural universe is the key to a life of balance within the body, senses, mind and soul.  It reveals that we exist in a creation of essential energies that are in a constant dance to maintain the balance of the Universe, internal and external.  Everything in the world is seen as interconnected and, therefore, effects and is affected by everything else.

Lesson 1: The Karma of a Cup of Chai

Everything that exists in the universe, you, me, our thoughts, the season, the elements, spices, a cup of chai, absolutely everything, has inherent qualities, called gunas in Sanskrit. These qualities are understood along a spectrum, between pairs of opposites.  Something can be hot or cold, light or heavy, moving or stable, etc.  We can take any substance, look at its qualities, and know the effect it will have on anything else.  For example, fire is hot.  The hot quality of fire has the effect of warming anything it comes into contact with.  The fire, its heat and its ability to warm are inseparable, so we know that when we sit next to a fire, we will warm up.

As far as masala chai goes, with an understanding of the qualities of the substances that we are ingesting, we can know the effect, taste, feeling and healing properties that are present in our cup of chai.  Every”thing” held within the liquid vehicle of our masala chai, the water, spices, tea leaves, milk, sweetener as well as the love, prayers, intentions, and thoughts that are imbued into the chai during preparation, has a specific action, or karma, on anyone who imbibes it.

Lesson 2: Like Increases Like and Opposites Balance

Any substance, even masala chai, can have a healing effect on our being if it brings about balance, or a detrimental effect, if it brings us into imbalance. The scientific law applied is that like increases like and opposites balance.  For example, you are very cold while taking an unheated overnight 2^nd class sleeper train across Northern India in January.  You are suddenly awoken by a train station chai wallah, yelling “chaiiiii, chaiiiii!” and a steaming cup of masala chai is placed into your frozen hands.  You happily drink it up and become comfortably warm.  Opposites balance.  Cold + Hot = Balance.  If you had an iced, unspiced chai (we never saw iced chai in India, but just for the sake of an example) you would have become even colder.  Like increases like.  Cold + Cold = Colder.

This law is universal and applies even outside of India.  When cooking up a batch of chai in the winter, which where we live, is dominated by the quality of coldness, we choose ingredients with a hot quality that will balance the cold quality of the season.  We utilize warming spices like ginger, cardamom, cinnamon and maybe even some very hot spices like black pepper or clove.  If we had a visitor who was hot-headed or had a fiery bodily symptom like a red rash or heartburn, we would make them a masala chai without so much heat.  If you are a person whose constitution is dominated by heat, especially if it is the middle of the hot summer, it would be wise to prepare a cooling masala, using spices like mint, coriander and fennel.

In this way, we can consider how much tea to use, if at all, depending on whether we are serving a person who is tired or anxious.  The amount and type of milk can be determined by whether the drinker has congestion, is overweight or has digestive issues.  Asking questions like: “What will the weather be like today?  Who is coming over?  How buzzed do I want to be?” will help determine the formulation you choose as you brew up your chai.

Lesson 3: A Strong Agni (digestive fire) is Essential for Health

Another factor to consider is digestive strength. In Ayurveda, our digestive capacity is likened to a fire in our stomach.  It is called our Agni, or fire of transformation.  Promoting a strong digestive fire is essential for good health, because when food is digested properly we are able to assimilate all of the nutrition and Prana, or life-force, present in the food.  The qualities of our digestive fire are hot and light.  If we apply the above lessons, we know that eating light, warming foods will help keep our fire burning while eating cold, heavy foods will put out our fire and hinder digestion.  Milk is a food with cold and heavy qualities.  Ayurvedically speaking, drinking a large, cold glass of milk out of the fridge will extinguish our fire, making it difficult to digest and potentially causing indigestion and mucus formation.  What to do?  Make masala chai, of course!  Milk can be made into a balanced, digestible food by heating it up, watering it down to make it lighter and infusing it with warming chai spices.  Yummmm.