Austin Cope ‘15, Jagori Grameen Fellow

The laborers carry bricks slowly but steadily, placing them in threes or fours on their heads. They move the cement in the same manner, pouring the dry powder from large woven polypropylene bags and mixing it with water and other materials in a gas-powered mixer. They then scoop the mixed concrete into wide plastic bowls, one at a time, and carry them on their heads as they move between the machine and the growing building.

Austin Cope ‘15, Jagori Grameen Fellow

In India, chai’s preparation and presentation is much less grandiose than in America, but the beverage reflects a much more complex set of global relationships, both historic and contemporary. And although it’s impossible to fully unpack those relationships in one narrative, it is clear that drinking chai in India means so much more than simply a choice of beverage at a coffee shop.