Coffee isn't a Close Substitute

Tea and Coffee, much to my dismay, do actually have much in common.  

Both provide caffeine, are comforting, usually brown in color, and are one’s best friend the night before a test you procrastinated studying for...but they aren’t replacements for each other.  

The United States has taken pride in being a country living on coffee (and destroying tea for that matter), having many fast-food chains specializing in having coffee ready for the graveyard shifts.  

India’s pride, if not Virat Kohli or Hrithik Roshan, has got be chai. Every household has a slightly different way of preparing it, yet we can all agree our dads need it at least twice a day.  

The concept of ‘home’ is a complex one, maybe even more than my mom’s masala chai recipe, but much like chai, it’s a little different for everyone. While watching The Swimmers, I initially felt so proud of myself for being able to understand a good amount of the Arabic spoken, but it quickly shifted to guilt for not being able to understand them fully, both through language and experience.  

With the amount of conflict going on in the world, I can understand what’s going on through what they say, but there isn’t much more I can do past praying for a peaceful future. We live in a world where fighting is more common than peace. When these refugees flee, freedom is always in their sights, yet they end up suppressed or pushed back. Whether it be through needing to ‘look less like a refugee’ or ‘less’ whatever culture they embrace, needing to know their language to be validated, or even getting stopped at every TSA checkpoint because people can't take chances even if you're 7 years old, can people ever truly be ‘free?’ 

I didn't expect myself to miss tea, real chai, when I moved to the US—I barely even lived there— yet here we are. The tea here was the Best We Could Do, and the best might never be good enough for those who long for a life, not survival.

We live in a world where people are leaving one prison for another. 

Comments

  1. Your Favorite Toro 🎀❤️December 8, 2024 at 2:11 PM

    I liked how you included your train of emotions while watching The Swimmers, it’s a real honest thing for one to admit that they don’t understand as much as they would like to. Just like how blissfully ignorant most of American society is to the life of the refugee that hopes to enter their “home”. We live so comfortable and praise the U.S unaware that it refuses to let others like us in.

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  2. MadhaviDecember 8, 2024 at 4:12 PM

    I like how comparing the cultures of the U.S. and India emphasized your point of being trapped. As a person who’s lived in one country my whole life, I can’t begin to understand the pain of moving away from somewhere you were supposed to belong, only to end up somewhere that mistreats you. I constantly admire your dedication to learning about your culture and think you shouldn’t feel ashamed that you didn’t understand enough. You should only feel ashamed when you stop trying to learn, so keep going and also tell me the exact translations from the movie because I’m curious now.

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  3. Aashika KDecember 8, 2024 at 5:38 PM

    Hi Jumana!! I really love how you compared tea and chai—it’s such a relatable way to talk about missing home. The connection you made between personal experiences and the struggles refugees face is so powerful. It’s a great reminder of how things like food and culture can mean so much when we’re far from where we started.

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