Humor
I have begun noticing this thing called chai tea fairly recently. Apparently, it has been around for some time now. It boggles my mind. I don’t think I will find this in India, or at least I hope I don’t! That would be weird.
Why? Because in Hindi, India’s national language, chai means tea. So calling a drink chai tea essentially means saying tea tea. Why would I do that when I can get by with saying it just once?
Do we ever feel the need to say beer beer? Or coffee coffee? The only place where I hear chai chai or coffee coffee is at the railway station where guys are trying to sell chai or coffee. These hawkers always say in twice and with a nasal twang to boot. But at a restaurant or coffee shop?
I asked good old Google about it. There were 29,80,000 results in .73 seconds. While I was not looking, the world has gone nuts over chai tea. I must have been under a rock.
Naturally, there were a few people out there who knew what they were talking about. There were some elaborate explanations about chai being a drink with tea and milk, and chai tea is — never mind. I got very confused. I almost forgot what chai originally means.
And to add more milk to the mix, I suddenly chanced upon chai tea latte. What? Tea tea milk?
Things are getting murkier and completely out of hand. Soon we will have chai tea latte sucre sugar. Might as well spell out each ingredient, just in case, and repeat them for good measure!
Anu Anniah Writes 