Chai Stories (2022-Present) 

 

“The COVID-19 crisis profoundly impacted the public’s mental, physical, economic, and social well-being. My experience with COVID-19 era underscored for me the vital importance of human connections, a concept immensely reflected in the Chai Stories project.”

 

My cross-cultural encounters and observations about public spaces in India and in the USA led to organizing the recurring Chai Stories project in both places. I came to the idea of this project during my transition to the USA for graduate studies during the pandemic, where I felt isolated and alienated. In the USA, public spaces are often formally designed and structured, which can lead to a loss of informality, cultural diversity, and spontaneity. In contrast, in Southeast Asia, particularly in countries like India, informal public places[1] naturally foster community-building, spontaneous interaction, and cultural dialogue­­ — such as the organic chai places. These informal places, like roadside chai places, are found on street corners, highways, markets, and parks. They are accessible, affordable, and filled with human diversity. I aim to explore and create informal public spaces in the USA — particularly on college campuses, university quads, and open lawns — that serve as platforms for community building, cultural exchange, and storytelling. To make a collective creative public space, I aim to utilize informal chai places in India as a framework for re-imagining public spaces in the USA through the Chai Stories project, accessible for transient and diverse publics, including potentially isolated, alienated, and marginalized people to come together to share stories and memories in exchange of a free cup of inclusive chai. Unlike Indian masala chai, I prepare a chai with non-dairy and non-caffeine materials, made with oat milk and organic spaces, allowing a broader public to participate. 

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Chai Stories in USA

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The world was grappling with COVID-19, and I flew more than 8000 miles to chase my dream of doing an MFA at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the USA. After landing in the US for the first time, I was directly in self-quarantine for ten days, which was required by the university. I felt double isolated and alienated in this new cultural place. This loneliness reminded me of the absence of my chai which I associated with the socialization at informal chai places in India. Chai places served as an antidote for loneliness in my life, and so does in others' life. In my experience, chai exceeds its material, physicality, it becomes a site for memory, entangled with different individual histories. During the mask mandate in Dane County, public performances were abandoned to stop spreading the virus. In this new place under COVID restrictions, as an International Student, I needed social interactions with others to feel a sense of community. 

On the other hand, I did not find informal public spaces in USA in which random, informal, and spontaneous interactions can be possible on the roadside, like organic Chai places in India. When Dane County lifted the ban on masks in public spaces, my professors Laurie Beth Clark and Michael Peterson curated the Home Stretch project, inviting the local community to socialize through art-based projects by different artists. I took this opportunity to initiate Chai Stories on the campus outside of the Art Lofts building to engage with invited guests.