Wisdom, generosity and a cup of tea
THE harsh black tea tasted of rusty nails. Aunt Polly was the kindest, most generous woman blessed with heart and warmth of spirit that would have made her a sister to Mother Teresa. But her tea was awful. It was boiled so many times the tea leaves were reduced to a slimy pulp.
It was the habit of Chatsworth’s Bangladesh market district people to have tea at the ready. One never entered a home simply to pass through. Whatever the time of day or night, you were offered a cup of tea and a meal. You ate whatever was offered. Polite refusals were brushed aside as the host literally forced it down your throat.
Aunt Polly was consumed by a bottomless poverty. From having been dispossessed of her family’s land and farm and forcibly moved from the Magazine Barracks, her life steadily got more impoverished. That didn’t stop her warming up the rice in a battered aluminium pot and frying you an egg. It was a meal to rival a Michelin chef.
The tea, however, was something to quickly swallow or toss into the potted plant when she was not looking. She came to mind this week as I was brushing up on my knowledge of teas for a talk I’ve been invited to give.
Several books on tea have adorned my bookshelves over the years but many have walked off. The internet was a good place to trawl. I found Devika Primic’s The Simple Use of Herbal Teas and Indian Spices. From the reviews, Deborah Grey’s Mystery in a Teacup comes highly recommended. There is also William Peltier’s attractive The Ancient Art of Tea Wisdom.
The book I have placed on order has little to do with tea but far more with promoting peace and growing education opportunities for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan – Greg Mortenson and David Relin’s Three Cups of Tea.
I am told that the book’s title comes from a quote by Haji Ali, said to Mortenson: “The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honoured guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family.”
That’s a piece of wisdom Aunt Polly knows very well.
Find Higgins on Facebook as The Bookseller of Bangladesh and at #Hashtagbooks in the Shannon Drive Shopping Centre in Reservoir Hills which is open seven days a week