# The One Where I Made Tea

In someone else's kitchen. Without any help from whom it belonged to. And if any of you have ever tried this or something similar, you might not exactly disagree with me if I say that a plumber in a cockpit might be much better off.

Lets start with the start.

I, with my mother, went to visit a very old friend of hers.Now this lady and her family are the earthiest people I know, straightforwardly simple. So I make it a point, or maybe I dont, 'coz it kind of works out subconsciously, that I leave all my baggage of formalities behind me when I am out visiting them.

Once there, it took no time for the two ladies to get busy with their gossip. Since aunty's children were not around, I was feeling a little left out, more so as they ventured onto topics and people(basically other aunties and their families) I had no idea about.

So I drifted towards an inner room to find something interesting. "Maybe I should fiddle with Smita's(her daughter's) stuff.", I thought( shameless I know, but cant help it when I am there!).Just then I heard aunty call out my name. "Go make some tea for us if you are getting bored!"." Tea, yeah that sounds nice.",I thought and went on to bellow an "Okay, I'll just get it for you." from the other end of the house.I didn't realise I was signing up for half an hour of total confusion and chaos.

I entered the kitchen and thought it would be wise to first get the things together, unlike in my own kitchen where my hands just move about mechanically and tea is ready before I know it! 
I looked first for mugs, there were almost half a dozen of those, some here some there. I didn't know if all of them were meant to serve tea.So I took two most likely candidates along with me to where the two ladies sat.They were so busy talking and looking at some new clothes of Anamika's{(aunty's elder daughter),fresh development in my absence} that they took no notice of me, and finding it impossible to break their conversation I headed back.I then went out to bring milk from the refrigerator, which ,to my horror, also contained 3 different containers, all carrying milk. After much thought I chose the one which contained the least amount of milk, considering it to be the one that was currently being used.Back to the kitchen, I looked for tea and sugar, which I luckily found soon enough.I didn't know which water to use, the one in the jug or in the RO.Played safe,decided on RO.Count find the pan in which to make the tea. After five minutes of searching to no avail, I settled for a pateela.
Lit the stove and put the tea up. It had come to full boil and it was time to take it down just when I realised that I had forgotten to find the sieve. Fearing that the tea might overboil if I kept the stove on or cool down before I sieved it if I shut the stove, I looked frantically in all directions without moving away from the pateela. My eys finally found the sieve, I took it and shut the stove.New horror: I didn't know how to get the pateela down from the stove, I did this with a chimta( it was very dangerous and stupid of me, now that  I think of it) and also managed to spill some tea in the process. Finally the tea was through. I served it nicely, I had managed to find a pack of biscuits!

I looked at the watch. I had been in there for nearly 40 minutes.Besides cleaning the kitchen slab with the kitchen floor mop(it was hung on the tap above the sink,and not  the one underneath it, how was I supposed to make out!) I managed to avoid any major disaster, which infact,is a rare feat for me.

I sighed with great relief.Almost all my mental capacities had been totally drained.

The two ladies just laughed.