Cup of Tea
A
Cup of Tea!
It was past midnight. We had to travel a few more hours. We wanted something that would drive away our sleep. Especially our driver. Yes, we badly needed a cup of tea.
Some kind soul told us that there is a tea-shop just after the Katapadi Police Outpost. We slowed down our vehicle. And fair enough, we found a small tea shop open, adjacent to the Canara Bank in Katapadi. The rolling shutters were rolled up, wide open!
We parked our jeep right in front of the tea-shop, a petty shop actually. We were in for a surprise. The person in the tea shop was lady! She seemed around 40 (later she disclosed her exact age). A lady, all alone, in a small tea shop at midnight. It was indeed a surprise!
Hot tea was boiling on the stove. The lady was extremely talkative. We needed tea; not conversation. But she wouldn’t care. She asked our whereabouts and our travel plans. For a second we thought that she was a police in mufti from the police outpost. We asked her why there were not stools for the customers to sit. She shot back “why stools, to sit here and chat unnecessarily?” Yet, she was the one who was doing all the chatting!
There were buns, biscuits, chakkulis and such other crunchy-munchies in the shop. And of course there were gutka pouches and cigarette packs too. As we were munching into the cream bun our eyes fell on a photo of Annamalai (former SP of Udupi) hanging on the walls. We got our answer soon. It was SP Annamalai who gave special permission to the lady to run a tea-shop in Katapadi at night. It would be open from 10 pm to 6 am every day.
Why on earth did SP Annamalai give a middle-aged lady from Katapadi a special permission to run a whole-night tea shop was beyond our comprehension?
Our tea was ready and we moved a little to the left to sip our hot cup of tea. Suddenly our eyes fell on a flex banner nailed to the wall. There was a lady in the picture, around 40, with medals around her neck. We looked at the lady in the picture. Shocking! We then looked at the lady who just made our tea!
We didn’t know whether the lady in the picture was in the tea shop or whether the lady in the tea shop was in the picture!
At the bottom of the picture of we saw the words “Congratulations to Sulatha Kamath.” As we went to buy some more eatables, we asked the lady her name. Sulatha Kamath!
Sulatha Kamath! A familiar name in the national and international level Master’s Athletic Circuit! In 2013, Sulatha Kamath won silver in 1500 meter running race, silver in 400 meter running race and bronze in 800 meter running race in the Masters Open Track and Field Championship at Sri Lanka. As recently as 13/5/2017, she had won the silver medal in the 3000 meter Race Walk Event in the 38th Masters Open Track & Field Championships 2017 held at Toa Payoh Stadium, Singapore. Winning medals at the national level was a cup of tea for Sulatha Kamath. The plain-looking tea seller had suddenly acquired an aura. We were having tea made by an international athlete. And, one more thing, Sulatha was 50 when she won her medals at Sri Lanka.
The sad story of Sulatha is the sad story of so many sportspersons in our country. The cost for the practice, good food, track suit, shoes etc and the cost for the travel to international athletic meets had exhausted Sulatha and drained her purse. For these expenses she had made huge loans. Every time when she wins medals it brings her joy and laurels to the country. But at the same time the worries on how to return the loans and how to arrange money for the next tournament keeps bothering her. Medals on the neck, smile on the face; anguish in heart and tears from the eyes. Sad indeed!
Now we knew why SP Annamalai gave her special permission to run a whole-night tea stall. After all, she needed something for her livelihood. She also needed to earn some money for the Canadian Masters Championships scheduled in 2018.
But wasn’t it risky to run a tea stall for a lonely lady at night. Open shutters, lonely lady; anything could happen. When we expressed this concern to Sulatha, she uttered such unprintable words that we felt she is a master in many other things too! We paid our bills and took our leave of Sulatha Kamath hoping that we could help her in some way in the future. And also worried about the open shutters and her safety!
Quite recently, 18/05/2018
to be precise, we were once again travelling at night from Udupi to some
destination. Out of curiosity we slowed down our jeep near Canara Bank,
Katapadi and unknowingly our eyes turned towards the tea stall. The shutters
were no doubt open. But strong iron grills had come up. Just like the bars of a
jail!! And we saw the frail looking international athlete, behind the iron
grills, waiting for her next customer. Waiting to make a cup of tea!
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