35.0 Hows Food At Your Boarding Place? This Is All About Tea I Had.

We had to drink milk tea with less milk powder and, it was a watery tea. The owner of the boarding place was an aunt and, she used to keep enough tea for all of us in a flask. 

She kept in on the dining table and, she served tea in the mornings and evenings. On some evenings, she was kind to give a snack with tea. So, after starting advance level studies, all of us had evening classes after school. Therefore, we used to have a small thing after school and, had lunch at the boarding place after the classes. Then we had lunch in the evenings and, it was tea time. 

Therefore, we had tea also after lunch. One day our aunty said 'You all don't need evening tea when you have evening classes as you had lunch in the evening right?. But we did not agree with her and, we said that it's not a problem to have a tea even just after lunch. We knew that it did not give an additional supplement due to the quality of the tea and other meals. However, she thought about us as a greedy gang. 

One day she called her daughter and, said that 'these gals are having tea just after lunch. They can have heavy meals anytime'. She said the same thing to one of my boarding mate's mother also and, she embarrassed a lot. 

So, that aunty talked to my friend and, asked not to have tea just after lunch. But my friend did not agree with her and, she said that it's required for all of us. However, we did not care about those talks even though, it embarrassed others. We had our tea as usual. Aunty did not keep tea in the flask for a couple of hours and, she cleaned it as soon as tea time was over. So, sometimes we missed it once we had to spend more time in the evening tuition classes.

Though it was not a good quality tea to enjoy, we expected it in the mornings and evenings. So, one day, one of my boarding mates asked her evening tea from aunty in such a situation. At that time, she said that she could not make tea time to time for each of us separately as per the schedules we had and, she asked her to work according to the rules of the boarding. After that, my friend did not make the same request again. However, she prepared tea for me in such a situation as I did not eat meat or eggs. In those days, that green color flask was one of our little hope and, all of us expected to see it in every morning and evening. Hah hah haa...

Time went tightly at the boarding place with exam pressure. However, the boarding gang was close friends like sisters and, they were a crazy gang. One day we got to know about a series of stars which can be seen in the very early morning and it was a rare scene. So, we decided to watch and, we informed aunty on the previous night. 

She also interested and, on the following day all of us went out with her. It was around four or clocks in the morning and, we went to the main road to watch it clearly. There was a restaurant and, one of the boarding mates liked its young manager. So, she visualized a romantic moment also with him and, she wished he could be there to watch the stars. Lol... So, we talked such nonsense and, observed the sky for a couple of minutes to find out that group of stars. We were lucky to see that rare moment. We thought that our effort was not waste by looking at the amazing stars in the clear sky. Anyway, I do not remember the specialty of those stars. On that day, aunty made tea for all of us once we returned to the boarding place.

As well as she gave usual morning tea before going to school. So, we glad about the additional bonus tea we had in the early morning. Therefore, one day-night we lied to her and, we said that we could see another amazing star series in the sky if we could go out in the morning. So, we got up early in the morning and, went out to watch the stars with aunty. But she did not suspend us though, all of us could see the ordinary stars which can be seen in the early mornings. However, it was not a problem because one day had succeeded out of two days. As we expected, she served tea for all of us once we returned to the boarding place back. It was a pleasure for all of us as we could win our plan.

However, I did not admit it today as an adult though we did it for our fun. I don't know why all of us did not think about it as the wrong thing. At that time our thoughts were different and, we tried to have fun out of every little thing. So, at that time also we discussed that aunty could donate something because of us. That was the idea of our hooligan sisters. According to our mindsets those days, we thought that we helped her to gain merits. Though I did not breach the rules of school and parents, I contributed to some kind of such silly things with the companion of my friends. 

After a very long time, I met aunty in Colombo. She was weak and grew old. Though I stopped and talked to her, she could not remember me. Annually there was a different gang of school girls in her boarding place. Or else she did not care about the crazy things we did. Sometimes our behavior was normal for her. 

So, once I asked for some more details from her, she said that she went to the hospital to check the blood. I felt sad about her and, I asked her not to go out without somebody. Then she looked at the sky and, said that the gods protect her. She had a decent family background and, those days all of her children were in some other countries. None of them stayed in Sri Lanka. She also planned to go abroad and live with her youngest son. 

It was her dream, and she was waiting for her son's message. But I realized that nothing had happened, by looking at her eyes. Once I asked her not to go out without somebody, her eyes filled with tears. After that, the whole day was a gloomy day for me and, my mind filled with her memories and sorrow. Meantime, I remembered the incidents and memories we had in the boarding place, and I worried about aunty. Today society is not kind enough to take care of their parents. If they could not bring them to their countries, at least they could look after them with the support of adult helpers.

As soon as I came back home, I had a habit of drinking milk tea. Therefore, I bothered my mother to get a cup of tea as soon as possible. 

Sometimes she got angry with me when she was working on something else which eager than my need. One day she asked me to tell her before getting down from the bus and, she said that then I could have it as soon as I came home. Though she asked me to make tea for myself, I always loved to drink a cup of tea prepared by my mother.

However, in Sri Lanka, milk tea is not a good beverage because of certain low-quality milk powder. Milk powder is the cause of most of the diseases in our society. However, I think it's our responsibility to aware of these things and, change our food habits.  

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