Chai is going to be the next Matcha
An American TikToker posted a video of her walking in the snow, drinking chai from her flask with this caption.

But you see, I am a proud desi girl, and half my Instagram feed is Indians reclaiming their culture from the West. Someone is mad about the dupatta being called scandinavian scarf, someone else is upset with the artsy girls for calling chudiya stacked bracelets, someone is decoding the history of steel to highlight how Indians eating everyday meals in steel plates was middle class, but the West is now calling these plates chic. So much information, so much rage. It is like my entire country and the diaspora had severe cultural amnesia, and we are now finally coming out of it. Claws out, ready to reclaim, no matter what the cost.

Decolonise fashion, decolonise art, decolonise sexuality, decolonise religion, decolonise oneself.
78 years of independence, and we have barely scratched the surface of truly being rid of our colonial trauma.

Mindset so deeply colonised that things are only cool once the West does it. I wore chudiya and payals all my adolescence years back home, but it took me 2 months in the Netherlands to take them off. They made too much noise, noise that was once my most favourite sound in the world. I was too brown to be seeking so much attention in predominantly white rooms. And then two summers go by, I come back to the Netherlands with blockprints and handwoven scarves to live my nationality and my culture more quietly. Only to find every cool girl wearing chunky metal bangles. So I pulled out mine as well. I am so embarrassed. So much for unapologetically reclaiming my culture! But I digress.

Chai is not going to be the next Matcha. Matcha was already very big in its place of origin. And then the West got obsessed to the point of ending up in hospitals due to iron deficiencies. This is not even my biggest concern. America made matcha paste. They put it in a tube!! Just add some milk, and it’s ready. Yes, take centuries-old tradition and make it capitalistic garbage. Everything has to be quick and accessible for all; there is no space to slow down, have a ritual, or practice patience.

Chai has travelled too much to belong to one place. It has voyaged lands, monarchies, oceans and histories. Every country has its own way of having chai, but the chai this girl is referring to, the chai I live by, is Indian. Not asian, not southeast asian, it is Indian. It has been big in the West for years already. And naturally, they whitewashed it as well. Premade milk powder mixes you add warm water to, or coldbrew-looking concentrates you add warm foamy milk to. “Turmeric chai mix” and “dirty chai lattes”

You know how my aunt made chai?
-Fresh lemongrass her husband would get from the local market, clean and cut himself
-Fresh ginger from the said local market
-Fresh mint leaves she grew on her balcony
-The same tea leaves my entire bloodline has bought for decades because Gujaratis are very loyal to their Wagh Bakri Chaa
-Cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and dried ginger ground freshly in her white marble pestle and mortar, she bought from Ambaji
-Amul milk because Amul is The Taste of India! Duh!!

She did put a little too much sugar for my taste, but listen, if you want to survive in India, you respect how a household makes their chai and never question it. Each house has its own recipe and its own personal process. Chai is a ritual, a labour of love, an heirloom passed down through generations. It is as pious as a religion. Indians love their chai, and we don’t mind sharing it with the West and the rest.

We will bring Wagh Bakri Chaa for our Dutch friend’s mum, and we will make an extra cup every morning for our Hungarian flatmate. We will open up Speciality Chai cafes in the heart of Amsterdam, and when a white person asks if the chai latte at some franchise cafe is good, we will always be honest and say it is not chai, but still a nice drink. We will share our chai, but we refuse to let anyone whitewash it. If you want to use a premix to make your chai, then state it. Don’t claim that it is chai when it comes out of a tin box. I love cafes that have chai latte on their menu because that is what it is, not chai. And no, I am not some chai crazy nationalist. This rant is not just about chai. It is about westerners loving a chai latte and buttery garlic naan and hating the immigrant who makes it. It is not just about chai. It is about everything that holds value to communities that have melanin in their skin.

We demand the respect and the credit for our food, fashion, art and tradition. We will take up space. We deserve to be given that space. You cannot choose bits and parts of my culture you like and don’t mind having in your society while fully disregarding and hating others. You cannot monetise chai, butter chicken and dupattas while calling the people they come from smelly and illegal. Wear our scarves and sarees and kohlapuris. Reimagine our prints and fabrics and recipes. Art and culture are always better when shared. But remember,

With the culture comes the community. You must make space for both.