Tea places in the hotel district.

[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi]

It remains in cooling darkness even during sunny afternoons. Shailain’s tea stall in Paharganj stands at the mouth of picturesque Katra Husain Baksh. The lane is shaped like a tunnel, the roof adorned with a series of arches.

The hotel district has cafés, bars, curio shops, leather goods stores, temples, and mosques. It also has a strong concentration of chai spots.

Take Jacksons. Technically speaking, it is a store for used books. But if bookseller Deepak Dialani decides to like you, then each time you visit his shop, he would treat you to free tea, along with a tin box containing an assortment of biscuits and salty mathis. The bookseller gets his supply of invigorating chai from Devi Prasad.

Devi Prasad’s stall lies hidden in a lane called Paach Hazar Nabbe. It has a small mandir clamped on the wall. See left photo. A native of the holy town of Ayodhya, the jolly-mannered man lives within the stall; its mezzanine floor being his bedroom.

Meanwhile, Sunita’s chai cart on the Main Bazar roadside is quietly marking its first decade. The patrons of her chai includes Doctor Jaggi’s clinic, where her husband, Ayodhya Prasad, works as a “compounder.”

Whereas Shabbir Khan’s tea stall makes its presence felt as a longtime Paharganj institution. Founded 35 years ago, it lies under a gigantic banyan tree with lots of overhanging aerial roots. The stall has a bench for customers, but the beautiful string cot is exclusively for the stall owner. He uses it for his afternoon siesta from two to four.

Then there’s a 30-year-old tea establishment with no fixed address. The elderly Tony hawks his chai all day long, walking to-and-fro the Main Bazar road, carrying two flasks and a bag filled with paper cups. See right photo. The chai is prepared by his wife Saroj.

Paharganj’s most cultish chai destination was Bhola Tea Stall at Chuna Mandi’s Chaar Number Gali. It was so popular that customers were obliged to wait for an hour for their turn. Every morning, a cyclist would arrive from the distant Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, carrying very many empty thermoses, each marked with a doctor’s name (some doctors wanted “cheeni kam” others would be fussy about the milk proportion, etc). The stall gradually mutated to Guru Dhaba eatery, and the focus moved away from chai. That said, to this day the tea made at the counter smells strongly of aromatic ginger, inducing sudden tea pangs.

Last but not least, if you walk towards Tooti Chowk, you will pass by an establishment that is not a chai stall, but a store for tea leaves and spices. Tea India has been recommended by Lonely Planet, among others.

Chai of Paharganj/strong>