The addictions of a tea-totaller

Shahana Roy
Nov 3 · 2 min read
Source: Shutterstock

Morning sunlight streams in with the eternal hope of good weather today. She brings in the tea and they dunk in their Marie biscuits. She tries not to think of the sludge that will be left at the bottom of the cup. He quickly crunches up his quota and asks for more; but there’s a stern rationing. It’s tea with biscuits, she says, not biscuits with tea. He sulks as she shakes open the crisp pages of the newspaper and smells the fresh ink. She reads the front page, then the next, and sighs and asks him, once again, what the world is coming to. He twists his neck trying to read the sports news on the back page of her paper. She makes a show of tut-tutting when he mourns over Federer’s latest defeat. He tries to care when she exclaims over the latest one plus one free deal on detergent. They both pretend not to notice the other when they sneakily take a look at the Bollywood gossip section. Around five pages down, the tea is over. He complains she doles out tea in small cups as if it were radium. She acidly reminds him that, so far, radium or not, she has been thanked. They both realize the folly of arguing right now when a second cup is badly needed. They start drenching each other in tea-making compliments; then switch gears and mention their poor sleep the previous night. They pit the arduousness of their day ahead against each other. They spar and parry and till she finally gives in, wondering how a true feminist would have handled it all. She plonks the second cup in front of him. Their tea makes brown rings on the ignored classifieds; coasters have long been seconded to paperweight duty elsewhere. He timidly ventures the opinion that there’s virtually no sugar in the tea, then ducks as she throws a cushion at him. This second cup is dietful and Marieless. She settles down to struggle with the crossword and the Sudoku, secretly Googling her way through some of the clues. He catches her as she guiltily shoves her phone away, and they both dissolve into giggles. They look at the clock. Time to deal with the rest of the day.

They say newspapers are fast becoming obsolete. Hope they find a way to e — ‘have a cuppa together’ just as fast.

— Shahana Roy

Shahana Roy

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Life is a tale. Told by an idiot…I am just the messenger. Find me at Travelleranons@gmail.com.

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