For the love of tea ( Chaye Khana)

"Tea turns your complexion dark", I have been hearing this phrase since my childhood. But this obviously wasn't the reason of my objection from drinking tea as it could not make much difference to my fairly dark complexion. Or maybe I was too hot for the tea to handle me. Whatever it was I could never build up a relation with the Lady Tea, even though I had to drink it on many occasions because of a friend, colleague, mentor, companion and elder whom the social world knows as "meemainseen" and we know as "Major (Muhammad Imran Saeed)". How me and Major became friends is a long in-comprehensive and disagreeable story which I will narrate to you some other day.

On a cold February night me and Major decided to visit The Monal Restaruarnt located on top of Margalla Hills to contemplate the beauties of our beloved Islamabad from above. Soon we realized that our separation from our love had set in a feeling of severe cold in our bodies and we needed to rush back down. We decided to settle down for a cup of coffee at Gloria Jeans in Kohsar Market. We reached there, switched off the car, came out and a sudden feeling of sensation appeared in the form of cold again, an Omen telling us clearly that this wasn't the place for us. We left without ordering and moved to a place called Chaye Khana in F-6 Market, Islamabad. 

Love can take many forms, it can be a place, a city, a cafe, a cup of tea, a cigar, a cigarette or a person, whichever form it may take it drives you along to a path where you come across heaven, hell, sanity and insanity. For me at that moment it was the love of imported Villager Cigars which Major had brought and had promised me one only with tea of-course.

We were asked to wait for our turn in the smoking section but the signs of love had started to appear as the feeling of cold was dissipating away, of course I didn't realize it at that time. After an arduous wait of about 20 minutes we were offered a place in the smoking lounge. The wall beside our seats had pictures of famous men & women who were smoking cigars, adding more pain to my wait and arousing my temptation as well.

Major, after building up a skyscraper of praises for tea as has been his nature, ordered Special Tea and Chocolate Mud Cake as dessert. I had to bear the philosophical talks of Major for a few more minutes while my mind was flying in imaginations of the cigar. Then a waiter appeared with a huge tray containing two sets of cups, a plate filled with a cake which appeared more like molten lava harnessed into a rectangular shape, a cup of milk and something which looked like an apparatus of sorcery filled with some dark magical potion.

Getting a feeling of unknown, I took over the role of an apprentice and asked Major to pour it out for me which he did (one of his very few generous moments indeed). After mixing up milk and sugar in it I took a cigar and started to unwrap it like a child. My eyes started to shine as I lit up my cigar, I took a puff and there was this huge sigh of relief. Ignoring everything around the world as I had got my cigar I held the cup of tea in my hand and took a sip of tea.

Boom, what was that, an explosion in my heart, my eyes wide open, euphoria, a feeling of free-fall and in that very definitive moment I knew that love had struck me. It was the season of the witch and her trick had worked, I had fallen for the Lady Tea. Major, her beloved apprentice was sitting in front of me smiling with a look of proud on his face, as he had succeeded in pleasing his Witch Master, The tea.

As I took the second sip a feeling of desire nourished in me which led to a third sip and so on. The feeling of wanting was getting stronger and stronger and by the end of last sip my love had attained a mature stage, a thunderstorm, raining tea all over me and there I was standing midst of it.

Was it really some kind of sorcery, I am not sure of it but that tea was definitely out of the world. The aroma, the taste, the sensation those were heavenly. My heart was thanking Major, who had brought me to an earthly heaven, Chaye Khana. Of course I never thanked him in person. From that day love has driven me to Chaye Khana many a times and it is the Heart of my Love Islamabad for me. 

The Cafe

Our Seating Place

The Apparatus

Major ( The Sorcerer's apprentice) 

Gateway to Earthly Heaven