The ubiquitous Chennai 'Nair Tea Kadai' is an institution of sorts. Dingy, dirty, but catering to the hungry wayfarer and office goer, one can find this shop at every nook and corner in Chennai. I wonder why the Malayali doesnt want to set up shop in Kerala but in ''Singara Chennai". One possible explation would be that since most Mallus are seen everywhere except Kerala, there seems to be a dearth of tea/coffee drinking people in the most literate state in India!!!
Another theory of mine says that the highly literate Mallus are way hygienic than Tamilians and wouldnt want to drink tea in dirty wayside shops. One would be surprised to see software guys from the likes of TCS, Infosys and CTS sitting in these shops with their company badges dangling around their necks and sipping hot chai and biting on a vada or a bajji throwing cleanliness to the winds. Some say that tea tastes better in a glass tumbler!
The 'tea shop' not only vends tea but also an array of fried snacks like vadas, bajji, bondas and the like. Some 'tea shops' even offer curd rice and lemon rice for a quick afternoon lunch. These tea shops seem to be a rendezvous for salesmen, auto-drivers and messages could be passed on to the 'tea-master' to be relayed to other people. How cool and effective is that?
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