Keshtu

"Look! The wife and the courtesan are important, but never forget your first crush!" Ajith (name changed) once stated, to underscore his choice of chai shops! He was just eighteen, but his philosophies were that of a fully-ripened grihastha, with rich (well, let's just say plentiful) allusions to women - especially courtesans and "jaaris" (his pejorative for women).

The "first crush" he was referring to was Keshtu, the tea vendor, the sole proprietor of the eponymously named chai shop, strategically located across from Hostel 1 and adjacent to the chemical engineering department.

(In the public interest of academic completeness, the "wife" was the college canteen, and the "courtesan" was Back Post).

Legend had it that Keshtu was antecedent to even the college and Back Post. For over four decades, he had survived intense competition and ran his operations with the efficiency of a munshi and the frugality of a bania.

His dingy chai shop sold chai and singada, the taste of which I cannot quite get out of my system, even today. It was that bad! But as if to pay off karmic debt from a previous life, we consumed the aqueous chai and the fetid singada every day.

Whether it was after a bout of basketball, or a difficult viva-voce session, or the rare relic called a campus interview, we washed down our vows with the watery mixture served in cheap glass tumblers, cleaned in a dirty vessel of slop.

Keshtu, with able assistance from "Butru", served his customers with solemnity, and was frequently rebuked for providing such horrible fare. The sport that he was, Keshtu took all that in his grotesque stride, slept peaceably at night, got up at dawn with resolve, and prepared the same concoction as he had done the previous day. To those that needed it, Keshtu offered the reassurance that things in the world would never change.

In summer, the industrious man that he was, Keshtu would shift to the Neem tree adjacent to the basketball court and serve sweet Lassi, which he garnished with cherries, and Bournvita. Even his biggest detractors had to accept that during the summer months when the mercury touched forty eight degrees Celsius, Keshtu’s delectable Lassi cooled their bodies and souls.

Tell me about your experiences at Keshtu or your own favorite "bunk" shop.

Interested in reading my other blogs?

How about my ode to old Hindi film music? Which is here --> THE GOLDEN AGE OF HINDI FILM MUSIC.

The first episode is HERE.

Or my eulogy to one of the greatest playback singers of India? SP BALASUBRAHMANYAM.