Chai wallah

From small villages to your biggest cities, you have a chai wallah (man) at ever corner...or perhaps several between corners in their small stands. Whether wandering the aisles of the trains, cycling around to their customers, or scurrying between small shops with a tray of prepared chais, you can find a chai wallah just about anywhere you look here. What we would consider chai is simply referred to as tea here, and you will receive a tea mixed with thick whole milk and enough sugar to cramp your jaw. If you want to forego the milk and sugar, you have to order a specially order black tea...but sometimes that is hard to come by. Served in small glasses or metal cups, people are always standing around sipping down a hot cup of chai. The chai wallah performs an impressive act exaggeratedly pouring the chai from one cup to the next with his arms fully outstretched in order to cool the hot chai. Everyone stands around and sips the hot chai out of the small glasses (holding carefully at the very top of the glass!), before tossing the chai wallah 4-5 rupees (8-10 cents), turning in their glass, and ambing on down the crowded street.