Tea Time

I'm sure most of you remember from history class that India was once ruled by England. Even though it's been independent for 60 years English tradition is still around.
Take for instance, tea time. It is observed twice a day...around 10 am and 3 pm. Tea is served with lots of milk and sugar so it's basically chai. Coffee is the same and reminds me of my Granny's "coffee milk" she used to make us as kids....lots of milk, even more sugar and a little bit of coffee. This would definitely be my kind of drink except that the 2nd time I drank it here I got diarrhea and stomach cramps--while having to hide the grimaces--at a birthday party:) So i haven't participated again:) Brian's office is served tea (chai) twice a day and he loves it. It's also served after church. I really can't get into having tea with myself at home--it seems like something you do with company:) but we have really become addicted to tea biscuits! They come in lots of shapes and brands but they are basically the same...they taste like vanilla wafers or shortbread and they are very cheap.
Some other English traditions that remain are driving on the left side of the road with the steering wheel on what would be the passenger side in America. That one's going to throw me off when i start to drive:)
and formal english writing and speaking. They add the letter U as in colour and flavour and use the letter S instead of z as in organise.
I haven't asked anyone what the national feelings are towards England. I assume they are good since Europeans are welcomed and live here. But there was one shady piece of evidence that I discovered in a language translation book that suggested India might not have the most fond affections for England. It is a "Learn Kannada in 30 days book". My housekeeper speaks this local language so we bought it to try to help us in conversational translation. As I looked through the random sentences like "It was raining outside today", this phrase caught my attention..."In the last world war, the Germans were fighting bravely." Hmmm. I couldn't imagine why you would ever need to say this to anyone in any language so i asked Brian what he thought it meant. He assumed it was b/c India was against England who was an adversary of Germany. Anyway--thought that to be a little strange for a book written in 2007:).