Coming full circle
With the passage of time, tea hotels and restaurants have been closed which resulted in disappearing of public spaces for people where they used to get to meet
Before independence, the people of American colonies were habitual tea drinkers. One incident changed their habit. It was in 1773 when the East India Company, which had the monopoly of tea, brought ships loaded with tea to the harbour of Boston. It was the time when the Americans were fighting against British colonialism and had anti British sentiments. The reaction was displayed when a group of people, disguise as red Indians, attacked the ships and threw tea boxes into the sea. This incident in the history of US is known as the Boston Tea Party.As a protest the people changed their habit and instead of tea started to drink Coffee. Although they abandoned tea drinking but in 1908, Thomas Suilivan introduced tea bags in order to prepare tea quickly. In the beginning refined silk was used for tea bags, which proved costly, therefore later glazed paper was used for making tea bags.
In third world countries like Pakistan, tea bags have become popular but in the process of their making they are adulterated by grass and some unhygienic materials which are hazardous for health. As it has become easy to make tea instantly, tea bags are widely used not only in hotels and restaurants but also in houses.
During British imperialism, they made experiments in their colonies regarding different crops and different climates. The British government established Q-gardens in London with a laboratory to make experiments of climate and crops and implemented them in their colonies. In 1826 when the British occupied Assam (city of India), they found its soil favourable for the cultivation of tea, therefore, in 1837 and 1840 the East India Company developed tea gardens in upper Assam, especially Darjeeling tea became famous for its unique aroma and taste.
So far, generally, Indian people were not habitual of drinking tea. Its use was limited to the newly English educated classes. However, when the production of tea was increased in Assam and monopoly of China over tea ended, the British government of India concentrated its attention towards popularising it. To achieve this object, the government in 1920 established the Tea Board for propaganda to attract people to d rink tea. They set up tea stalls at railway stations where tea was served to passengers free of cost. Gradually people of India were addicted to drinking tea.
In India and Pakistan, tea is made from various methods. One of them is to mix sugar and milk with tea and boil it. This use is popular in lower and middle class hotels and restaurants. Sometimes, tea leaves are boiled not in water but in milk and consumed after mixing sugar. In elite classes, tea, milk and sugar are separated and mixed according to taste. Some people like to drink tea without milk and sugar. Another form of tea is Kashmiri tea, which is popular in Punjab. The green tea or qahwa is widely used in KP and Balochistan and small cups are used for drinking it.
Tea drinking has a great effect on social and cultural life of the people of the subcontinent. In the cities and villages, there are hotels and restaurants where people get together around the table and discuss political, social and literary affairs over a cup of tea.
After partition, especially in the cities of Sindh, the Iranians belonging to Bahai religion open hotels which became the centers for middle classes. The price of a cup of tea was affordable. The hotels were neat and clean and had efficient service. Interestingly, all these Iranian hotels had the same furniture, tea cups and patties of the same taste. In Hyderabad, some of the well known Iranian hotels were Café Lucky, Café A1, Café Unity, Café George, Café Roxy and Café Shirazian.
In Karachi, Café Persian and Café George were famous because their prices were within reach of students and youngsters. Beside them there were other hotels in the city and some of them were favourite meeting places for poets, artists, actors and businessmen. In the markets, the hotels serve the clients efficiently through their employees (known as Chai Walas). The shopkeepers and traders drink a hot cup of tea within minutes and leave the hotel immediately to attend to their businesses.
With the passage of time, tea hotels and restaurants have been closed which resulted in disappearing of public spaces for people where they used to get to meet, discuss and socialise in absence of public places. There is a vacuum for writers, artists, politicians and students to have a meeting place. However, tea stalls on footpaths and on roadsides are doing their business by serving hot cups of tea to labourers and workers.
In Europe, it was also the tradition that the hotels and restaurants were favourite places for the intellectuals and artists. They used to spend a considerable amount of time there and meet their friends and admirers. Sartre, the French philosopher and writer, had his favourite restaurant where he spent some of his time daily. It was the tradition of the French restaurants to provide writing material to customers. It was also customary in Germany and other European countries to provide space to the intellectuals to come together and exchanged their views. Gradually, these public spaces disappeared from the cultural life of the city. According to Heber Mas, these public spaces contributed significantly to the political, social and cultural life of European society. In their absence, Europe lost the institutions which provided opportunity to popularise and deepen the roots of democratic values. However, in the Middle Eastern countries, hotels are still lively places to its customers where they play indoor games, recite poetry and play music.
