Steaming cups of chai brought Fulbright scholars Zach Marks and Resham Gellatly together while they were teaching English at an NGOrun school in New Delhi three years ago. But the Indian tea also became the subject of a research project for the couple who decided to focus on the ubiquitous chai wallah, the man or woman responsible for whipping up bubbling, spiced hot cups of tea at every other street corner in India. The duo’s online project, titled the Chai Wallahs of India documents the life and times of the neighbourhood chai wallahs, their personal stories and their secret recipes.

“As Fulbright scholars in India from , we travelled the country and witnessed firsthand the importance of chai and the communal interactions chai wallahs facilitate,” said Marks, in an email interview from Patna, where the couple had gone to check out NaMo tea stalls that were part of Narendra Modi’s campaign rally. “In India, chai is an integral part of the rhythm of life, from the deserts of Rajasthan to the seaside megacity of Mumbai, a constant, unifying presence in a profoundly diverse, complex and rapidly changing country. And behind each cup of Indian chai is a chai wallah.”

In Patna, Marks added, they had come to “hear the campaign rhetoric about Modi’s humble beginnings as a chai wallah at a railway station in Gujarat”. For the last six weeks, the US-based Gellatly and Marks have been travelling across India – so far they have collected stories from Delhi, Haryana and Kolkata. Future plans include Bihar, Rajasthan, Punjab, Maharashtra, Goa and Kerala. Affiliated with the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in Delhi, an independent research institute in the humanities and social sciences, the duo are hoping to eventually publish a book on this project.

According to Gellatly, chai drinks, often called chai tea or chai tea latte in the West, are hugely popular thanks to tea and coffee chains. But very few know the story behind the origins of everyone’s favourite brew and how important it is to Indian culture, where it is more than just a drink. “We want to tell the chai wallahs’ stories for Indians who love chai but may not have thought about its larger role in society as well as for Westerners who have no idea what chai means to one-sixth of the world’s population – or what ‘chai wallah’ even means,” she explained.

Of course, Marks and Gellatly decided to start working on this project over countless cups of chai, when they realised that while people have written about tea in India, nobody has really focused on the chai wallah. Their blog is full of interesting anecdotes about men and women who serve several cups of chai all over the country every day. But they are ultimately anthropological documentations about cultures and communities. “The culture of adda, or sitting for hours and talking over chai, is very strong in Kolkata,” said Gellatly. “One of our favourite parts of the Kolkata chai culture was how many chai wallis, or women chai wallahs, we found. In Delhi and Haryana, we rarely saw women making chai. If they worked at a chai stand, they were with a husband or brother. In Kolkata, we met chai wallis working alone and they all seemed to be comfortable and secure. This difference in the chai wallah culture reflects the broader differences between these cities, and it was through the lens of the chai stand that we really came to understand this.”

Every chai-making process, according to Gellatly, is unique. While some add lots of spices to their tea by smashing ginger with a cup or grinding elaichi in a mortar, others focus on the dairy element by using buffalo milk for an extra creamy cup or condensed milk for a thick, sweet concoction. Some forgo milk altogether in favour of lemon and kala namak, making a clear drink for the healthconscious patron. “But we haven’t seen the range anywhere else that we did in Kolkata, where lebu cha or plain liquor tea was nearly as common as masala chai,” Gellatly said. “Additionally, we found that chai wallahs in Kolkata were more likely to source their tea from independent teashops than chai wallahs in Delhi, many of whom use packaged branded tea from giants like Tata.”

Marks recalled an anecdote in Delhi that left an imprint on the couple. “We met one of Delhi University’s famous chai wallahs, Deepuji, who runs the JP Tea Stall on the D School (Delhi School of Economics) campus,” said Marks. “The stall was packed with college students and faculty sipping chai and playing carrom together.” Marks explained that Deepuji took a break to show them a diary he maintains. The diary goes back years and is filled with notes from his customers, including poems and songs that students have written for and about him. “These students continue to visit him for years after graduation, and Deepuji remembers them all,” said Marks. “This was especially exciting for us to see because we had been worried about India’s new coffee chains wiping out the street chai culture, but seeing how connected young people are to their chai wallahs made us realise that they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.”