Tea time intimacies.

[Text and photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]

At four in the evening, four carpenters settle down for tea. Clockwise from right: Alauddin, Kaleem, Farman and Imran Ali. The men work at Yameen Peti Wale. The workshop in Old Delhi’s Gali Chooriwallan is literally a hole in the wall, but, cave-like, it goes very deep within. On any given day, some of these men are seen ensconced into the remote interiors of the workshop, far from the daylight, surrounded by stacks of wooden planks, half-hidden in half-darkness.

The men makes petiyan, or boxes. They agree to share their chai-time thoughts.

Alauddin: I’m the only one among us four who isn’t from Purani Dilli. I came to Dilli more than 30 years ago from Muzaffarpur. My mother, my brother, my wife, my only child—a son—live in the village. I think of them a lot but never for long. In life, one is surrounded by tensions, but I never allow tensions to disturb my mind. I’m bindaas (carefree)

(The other men nod.)

Kaleem: My world consists of my wife and my four children. The children are very young. The thing that bothers me is the fact that we live in a rented house. When you stay in a kirae ka makan, the money that you give away as house-rent is the money that is lost to you permanently. One needs one’s own house.

Farman: I’m a lucky man. This carpentry workshop passed down to me from my late father, Yameen, who inherited it from his father, Zaheer, who founded the workshop about 50 years back. So, it will be a discourtesy to God to feel any dissatisfaction. I have all that a man needs in life. I have a family, wife and two children. But… what will happen tomorrow? Will my world be still stable?

Imran: We all are like brothers to each other… we work with this wood using our common tools—-hathora, zambor, batali, and aari. That’s it. I hope I’m able to continue to work for many years. I do not desire anything else.

The men always have their chai from Gulzar Tea Stall. They treat themselves to three tea breaks daily. This is their day’s final tea session.