Tea at 46 Degrees

 Tea at 46 Degrees:

We were at Mahajan field firing tank ranges, near Suratgarh deep in the Thar desert in Rajasthan .

It was an exceptionally hot summer day. It was not yet noon and I already had 32 glasses of water.. and half a bucket of highly sweetened sherbet of sugar water salt and perhaps some squash for flavor .. the black dungarees were coated with salt from my sweat . I was almost delirious and parched.

The turret of the tank was so hot you couldn’t touch the metal without getting blisters.

We often wondered can we fry eggs and crispen bacon on the metal turret .. we possibly could .. it was so hot.However, hadn’t yet tried it ever.And the heat from the main engine of the tank of 3200 horsepower transmitted an additional 5 degrees...We often laughed at people who would ask us then, aren’t your tanks air conditioned.. fat chance.

So on a day like that ..Just while I was panting under the lone acacia tree my  Squadron JCO Risaldar Major Salauddin Khan (Junior commissioned office, higher in age and experience and lower in rank to a young rookie officer like me), told me... Saab have a hot cup of tea .. it will help a lot with the heat and thirst..( in some matters I took the advice seriously, for their age and experience) 

However, my first reaction... are you kidding me hot tea brewed at noon in the desert.. did he think I was General Rommel in the Sahara. Besides, I was not much of a tea drinker even at the Glacier in sub zero temperatures.

Anyhow, I did have a hot sweetened tea and after 10 minutes the thirst subsided.. mouth wasn’t dry.. it was almost like the tea had calibrated some kind of thermostat in my body.

So today on a June afternoon in Delhi with a heatwave having a late afternoon tea, I was reminded of that day and that lesson.. lost in the desert..