Noon Chai – A Sweet Beginning

First published on Samavar.

They say you have a perfect start to the day when you praise the Lord, see the sun rise, hear the birds singing the songs of the morn. But, in Kashmir, something else, inevitable and irreplaceable marks the ideal beginning of the day apart from these.

There is no morning without Noon Chai, there is no afternoon/evening without Noon Chai.

Noon Chai – usually marketed as Green Tea, the name seeming to be a misnomer as we always see it in a Pinkish Red hue – is the special salt tea which we, in Kashmir, have to have, religiously,  twice a day. In the morning, it serves as the breakfast along with Lawaas, Bakerkhaani, Kulcha or a Girda – all different varieties of Kashmiri bakery collectively known as Tsott.

In the afternoons, stretching into evening in the winters, preferably around 4 or 5 the hot steaming Noon Chai serves as a refresher even when temperatures soar upto 34. And if there are some hot and crispy Moinjgool handy, the experience of Noon Chai becomes ever more memorable.

The mystery or, more preferably, the mystique of the Noon Chai amazes me till date. Despite being salty, it is the pre-requisite for the sweetest of starts of any day for Kashmiris.

Noon Chai and Kashmiris have such strong a connection, or should I say Noon Chai is too tasty to ignore, that even pilgrims to Makkah and Madina take along at least some quantity of Noon Chai with them. So much so that students coming back from hostels or from outside Kashmir are first of all asked, “Did you have Noon Chai there?” Having Noon Chai is worth the long wait which precedes, while it is getting prepared, considering that it is preferred over the sweetest of the sweet beverages available at a particular time.

And Samavar! What better thing to prepare Noon Chai than a Samavar! I sometimes wonder the romantic cliché, “made for each other” fits perfectly for the combination of Samavar and Noon Chai, Kehwa being the other claimant to the duet, nevertheless, for a later time to discuss!