I was traveling from Somnath Jyotirlinga Temple to Nageshwar Jyotirlinga Temple and on to Dwarka Bet and Dwarka Shri Krishna Temple before returning to Mumbai via Jamnagar. A night halt at Dwarka was a must if one wanted to walk about within the Dwarka temple and adjacent streets at night. Its an entirely different world out there, from the morning prayers and darshan. The narrow lanes around the temple change completely.
But, early dawn is something else, altogether. Its only about breakfast and before that, its about sipping tea at the various pavement stalls at the inner city and near the temple. Everyone you see, tourists, pilgrims, car drivers, local vendors, policemen, priests and anyone else that I may have left out, is walking about slowly, ambling actually, deliberately to these pushcart tea stalls. There is no dialogue and no talk. The tea maestro, if I may indulge thus, silently pours out the tea in good or grubby cups and saucers. Each person picks up a cup and saucer, stands aside and takes the first sip and says, 'aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh' with selfish delight and happiness.
Then comes the traditional Junagadh to Rajkot to Jamnagar to Dwarka to Porbandar trademark style of sipping tea. The hot steaming cup of tea is poured out on the saucer, and it is sipped, with a splendid slurping sound. It has to be thus, and no other way. My man friday for Jamnagar-Somnath-Nageshwar, my good friend, Virambhai, did just that. And he enjoyed it. After a couple of photographs, I picked up my cup of tea, poured it out on the saucer, and had my very splendid moment of zen like bliss, when I slurped and sipped and slurped and sipped with some bit of noise. Virambhai looked back at me, and smiled in delight, and I smiled back with schoolboy happiness.
But, early dawn is something else, altogether. Its only about breakfast and before that, its about sipping tea at the various pavement stalls at the inner city and near the temple. Everyone you see, tourists, pilgrims, car drivers, local vendors, policemen, priests and anyone else that I may have left out, is walking about slowly, ambling actually, deliberately to these pushcart tea stalls. There is no dialogue and no talk. The tea maestro, if I may indulge thus, silently pours out the tea in good or grubby cups and saucers. Each person picks up a cup and saucer, stands aside and takes the first sip and says, 'aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh' with selfish delight and happiness.
Then comes the traditional Junagadh to Rajkot to Jamnagar to Dwarka to Porbandar trademark style of sipping tea. The hot steaming cup of tea is poured out on the saucer, and it is sipped, with a splendid slurping sound. It has to be thus, and no other way. My man friday for Jamnagar-Somnath-Nageshwar, my good friend, Virambhai, did just that. And he enjoyed it. After a couple of photographs, I picked up my cup of tea, poured it out on the saucer, and had my very splendid moment of zen like bliss, when I slurped and sipped and slurped and sipped with some bit of noise. Virambhai looked back at me, and smiled in delight, and I smiled back with schoolboy happiness.
