This edition of Chai & Something is about home - not as a fixed address, but as the collection of tastes, names, songs and rituals we carry between places.
Read: The Namesake
Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel follows the Ganguli family across generations, exploring identity, belonging and the complicated inheritance of a name. Read it with the chai your family would recognise. Discover the book.
Watch: The Namesake
Mira Nair’s film adaptation gives the story a visual life across Kolkata and the United States. Watching after reading makes for a rewarding double bill: what changes when an interior story is translated to the screen?
Listen: The songs your parents played
Rather than prescribing an album, ask someone in your family for three songs they remember hearing at home. Make a tiny shared playlist. The conversation about why they chose each one may become the best part.
Eat: Parle-G
No elaborate recipe this time. Open the packet, pour the chai and decide whether you are a careful dipper or a reckless one. Familiarity is sometimes the whole point.
Sip: Masala chai
A balanced masala chai suits this edit: layered, comforting and made from ingredients that are distinct on their own but more complete together.
Home can be a place. It can also be the cup you know how to make without thinking.
Share this edition with someone who lives far from where they began - and ask them what home tastes like now.
