The 'piping' cup of tea!

Remember the story of Bachcha Saqqa who used to serve water from a leather bag made of goat's skin? According to a legend, he used it as a life jacket to rescue Emperor Humayun from drowning.

Bachcha was rewarded with an opportunity to function as the Emperor for three days. And during that short period, he issued coins made out of leather to commemorate the big occasion.

The story led to the coining of a proverb about "leather coins".

Several years ago, I encountered a clone of Bachcha Saqqa - one Mr BPS who was a member of a boy's marriage party in north India that had come from Gwalior to Orai in south UP.

I was on the bride's side in Orai. Like others, I was also looking after the arrangements for the visiting party.

As if it is a tradition, there is invariably some person (often more than one) in a bridegroom's marriage party who would throw his weight around. He would expect special treatment for himself, unnecessarily create problems and even issue diktats to the hosts on the bride's side.

Even though the duration of stay for such a person lasts a few hours to a day or two, he thinks he is the monarch of all that he surveys on the occasion.

He would like to make the best of that short period. After all, marriages do not take place every day. So, why not enjoy yourself to the hilt whenever there is an opportunity?

How some people in the marriage procession disrupt and regulate road traffic according to their whims is a common sight in the Indian subcontinent. Nobody can confront them, particularly if they are in an inebriated state.

BPS seemed to be too conscious of the fact of holding a privileged position and special status by virtue of being the son-in-law of the bridegroom's family.

He had started asserting himself right from the moment the barat (marriage party) arrived. Assuming the role of the marriage party's spokesman, BPS was too demanding and critical of the arrangements throughout that otherwise beautiful evening. Nevertheless, all possible efforts were made to satisfy him.

Even if this son-in-law of the bridegroom's father had not asked for it, arrangements had been made to serve bed tea in the early morning of that cold December morning. And tea was duly served.

Lamented

However, at one stage, the bride's brother came to me lamenting that at least five rounds of tea had been served. But every time the group led by BPS, after consuming some of it would complain that it was "cold" and ask for another cup of "piping hot tea".

I looked at the partially filled cups of the last round that had come back and then made a visual assessment of the group.

The cups were emptied of their content that had got cold by now. I placed all the porcelain cups upside down on the mud-plastered periphery of the big hearth inside which coal was burning in full fury.

Within minutes, the cups became extremely hot. I poured the rejected cold tea in the cups and redistributed them to BPS and his group. BPS picked up one and as it touched his lips, he cried out "Ooh".

Hurriedly, he put it back on the table. He could not sip even a drop of the tea.

Yet, when I asked him meekly, "Is the tea piping hot?" BPS replied without batting his eyelids, "Yes. Yes".

I asked him, "Do you need more?"

"No. No. Thanks. This was enough", BPS replied licking his singed lips.

The "cold tea" session had thus come to an end!

Lalit Raizada is a journalist based in India.