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.”
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Chai Stories in India
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Chai places served as an antidote for loneliness in my life, and so does in many others' life. In my experience, chai exceeds its materiality, it becomes a site for memory, entangled with different individual histories. After my first year in my MFA degree in the US, I visited India in 2022, after COVID travel relaxation came into action. I organized a few Chai Stories performances at Kaka’s Chai place in Vadodara, India, during my visit to reunite with my community. Since then, I have conducted Chai Stories at various informal chai places in Vadodara city, India, every year to celebrate moments together as a community. More than ten Chai Stories have been conducted in India since 2022 at informal chai places to bring people together and to support tea sellers..
Kaka's Chai Place, Vadodara, Gujarat, India
Vishnu Chai Place, Vadodara, Gujarat, India
Chai Stories (Urban Version) in Rural Setting-Sevasi, Vadodara (27 Nov 2022)