Free Tea

Trust our luck – we get nothing to eat, nobody treats us and we slog it out for nearly an hour on a cold, breezy morning… and then we are rewarded by piping hot chai before we leave. What could be any better than that? More so, when it is all for free and we can have as many cups as we want and no questions asked!
A new company did a product launch of non-caloric, sugar-free sweeteners this morning by offering elaichi-flavored tea for diabetics at the Garden gate. “One sachet good enough for four cups of tea,” chanted the white T-shirted boys and girls at the counter. “But you need to be a diabetic!”
Nobody listened. We all became diabetics for the sake of the free tea – though one vigilant young man pointed at a vinyl poster of a grinning M.S.Dhoni strung up behind the tea counter. “If that guy can have it, we too will have it!”
It was a refreshing culmination to the exercises, dominated by discussions on television soaps. As it turned out, Shekhawat proved to be a know-all while he deftly fielded questions on different plot lines, the nuances of characterisation, who would be the next to pop off and so on. Nafisa Sayed was amazed at Shekhawat’s infinite depth of knowledge. “This man watches more TV than women do,” she concluded, stating the obvious.
Jagmohan Papneja:
The American Diabetes Association have given a cautious nod to the use of artificial sweeteners in place of sugar to combat obesity and diabetes.