Innocence and Tea

Divali, is never always about fat laden, sugar laden overindulgence amidst brilliantly flashing lights in winter.

For some friends like Sangeeta Khanna of Delhi, it is about enjoying the warmth of a Divali morning, made more lumnious by the play of the Sun's rays  in translucent teacups filled to the brim with some amazing brewed, hand rolled, silver tipped white tea.

(Silver tipped white tea,  are very young tea leaf buds, tightly rolled up as they were when they were harvested, and covered in the fine, white down from which white tea gets its name.  This tea is handpicked early in the springtime, before the buds have rolled out to become leaves. Picking white tea is commonly a job for women wearing gloves. The buds are not actually touched by human hands before the Silver Tipped white tea ends up in the teapot of the happy tea aficionado.....)

 

No scheming minds
No boiling tension,
no strong spicy words,
no raging red attitudes,
and an unsuccessful
effort at calming
by an ombudsman milk.

But
A clear
transparent
radiant baby mind,
filled
to the brim
with the joy
of the baby tea leaves,
not yet learning
to unfurl,
fresh and high
intoxicated by hill air,
gently splashing,
sighing and resting
in a warm kettle pool.

A gentle wandering
into
two tea cups
warmed by the Sun
on a
divali winter morn,
and their smiles widen
in the cups
as they play with the Sunrays,
look up,
watch her
touch her cheek to theirs,
and ask,
"Sangeeta, What are you planning for breakfast today?"