This poem reflects on tea as more than a beverage—it becomes a quiet witness to human emotion, carrying stories of pain, love, memory, and connection. In shared cups of chai, people find fleeting warmth, companionship, and a soft pause from life’s loneliness.
चाय पर Charcha
There are some wounds in life
that no doctor can touch.
Some remain hidden behind smiles,
some dissolve quietly
in the smoke rising from a cup of tea.
Steam rises like half-finished thoughts
from a steel glass held by tired hands.
The world slows down here—
at a corner stall
where nothing feels urgent
except the next sip.
Here, even silence has company.
Even strangers begin to understand each other
without introductions.
A spoon clinks.
A joke lands softly.
Someone laughs
like they had not forgotten how.
Politics spills over sugar,
dreams dissolve in boiling water,
and pain—
it simply sits quietly
like an extra chair no one removes.
And chai…
Chai does not choose sides.
It just keeps happening—
strong, simple, forgiving.
A man stares at the road
as if it might answer him back.
A student stares into nothing
and calls it a future.
Same cup. Different storms.
Yet somehow,
between one refill and the next,
life becomes a little less sharp.
Because “चाय पर Charcha” is not talk—
it is pause.
It is presence.
It is people pretending
they are not alone
for five more minutes.
And maybe that is enough
for life to go on.
(Vijay Verma)
www.retiredkalam.com
Categories: kavita
Retiredकलम 
Verma ji, this is absolutely beautiful. You’ve captured the soul of that roadside chai—where wounds don’t need to be healed, only held, and where loneliness finds a quiet companion in a steaming cup. The way you turn a simple stall into a sanctuary of shared silence and small mercies is nothing short of poetry in its purest form. “An extra chair no one removes” — that line alone will stay with me for a long time. Thank you for reminding us that chai is never just chai; it’s a pause, a prayer, and sometimes, the only warmth we need to keep going. 🙏
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