Mumbai winters and a hot cup of ginger tea

Have you ever been to Mumbai during December or January? I could simply write “winters”, but these two months do not necessarily mean “winters” in this city.

When I shifted to Mumbai a few years ago, people told me that the city has only two seasons – summer and monsoon. As a north Indian with love for winter, this was disappointing for me, to say the least.

Only a few can relate to the love for knitting and crocheting I inherited from my mother. Gone are the days when I proudly kept all the matching pullovers and cardigans my mother made for each of my outfits. Days passed, and I realised my woollens were equally sad without the annual cycle of taking them out of the trunk, using them and again keeping them back in place. They were replaced by occasional casual hoodies, also used rarely.

Nonetheless, I have always loved this city, no matter how badly I miss winters.

This year, as we are already shivering from the COVID scare, the days and nights are getting colder here. I love this weather: neither too hard to make us look for the sun nor too hot for my silk sarees!

So as mercury dips below its stubborn 30 degrees, I have all the reasons to celebrate: I made til laddus and Sarson saag and finally took out my crochet and yarns to weave out different stories. I also enjoyed a rare and uncharacteristic afternoon nap a few times, wrapped up in a cosy warm quilt!

But what can you relish more than a hot cup of ginger tea in winters? It definitely tops my list. I always feel that tea in winters is so much more than the tea itself. It is reliving the happiest moments spent together. A steaming hot cup between both palms with a side of family gossip, to the piping hot cup of ginger tea, served in kulhads (earthen cups), was an essential part of marriages and, for me, one of the reasons to go to weddings.

On this rare Mumbai winter morning, I am nostalgic about the raw ginger tea my grandmother would make with jaggery instead of sugar. I still can smell the rawness of that cup.

So while Juno, my pet, is soaking in the sun, I am ready with my hot ginger tea!!!

Happy winter, guys!!