Chai Stall at the CEERI gate.

Pilani isn’t a very big or an immensely fascinating place. It’s a small industrial town, glorified by its status of being Ghanshyam Das Birla’s birthplace and an important educational destination, since BITS and some other boarding schools owned by Birla are located here. It’s not a place which would be of much interest to a conquistador or an explorer. It doesn’t have any hideouts, groves, mysterious graveyards, shady hangouts, narrow alleys or dried wells. Actually, it might, but there’s no story to go along with them which would make these places worth visiting or exploring. In absence of stories, these are just brick structures which make the place even gloomier and dead than it actually is. So, actually ‘discover’ some small nook which one can call his own is a matter of great delight and satisfaction. The chai stall near the CEERI gate is one such place. The Lilliputian size and bare existence might make it see unimpressive but as I said, the point was never the size or the grandeur, but the thrill of discovery and the pride of possession.

It stands, rather leans outside the BITS campus wall and thus the name ‘chai stall by the BITS gate’ is equally suited. However for the sake of clarity lets call it what we already have. So like a diminutive in-between it stands besides the road running between BITS and CEERI. It is, in its essence a tarpaulin sheet on four sturdy posts of wood. It has a big tin locker which has all sorts of little knick-knacks- cigarettes, tins of sweets, paan masaala and more. Everything is neatly arranged on newspaper bits spread on wooden boards and occasionally a rare pack of Classic adorns one of the shelves, kept haughtily before all the cheaper brands. There is a big stand with a stove and a solitary gas cylinder which goes on and on like the Amar Jawan Jyoti. A bucket full of drinking water is also placed on the side. Next to this stall, many earthen pots decorated with typical Rajasthani paintings are kept in a pyramidal formation. There is a neat human symmetry which is kind of surprising, since I’ve never seen them being used. Besides these, two long wooden benches and foldable steel chairs line the wall, the only attempt made at consumer satisfaction or aesthetics. A young fellow, in his twenties, works in the stall with his one-eyed assistant whose stare is quite unnerving. He knows us well because we are regulars.

I take pride in describing this place because it was one we accidentally discovered and then adopted on our long, aimless evening walks. It’s still not commercialized, a handful of people know about it and those who do, don’t frequent the down-market, isolated little place. It’s our secret, our little precious part of Pilani where we can sit and sip tea without being disturbed.

On a normal evening, for that’s when we go there, there’s nothing more than a light crowd of three or four. Usually this comprises of the chowkidar or other locals who know the chai stall owner or his uncle. We sit on the chairs or benches, order our chai and talk about the day’s events (like middle-aged professors). The place has a lovely view of the sky and we can see the sun retiring in the horizon as the wispy clouds flirt with the changing hues of the sky. The birds too glide across the sky in a beautiful arrowhead formation. We are on a light high and the redundancy of our conversations is usually high. Sometimes the Engineering Graphics professor comes with his friend and gives us knowing grins.

The bhaiyya makes tea and pakora and plays the only working radio in BITS without a word and one cant really gauge his mood. We smile amicably each time and loans are given and taken without question. There’s hardly any conversation between us, but there’s an unsaid bonhomie, a trust.

It is a trust forged by the hundreds of cups of chai that he can make but we can’t. It is a trust forged by a common sun which gives us laidback contentment each time it sets in the common sky. It is the trust forged by the light-hearted despondency which ‘in-between’ brings with it.