rechelle's lifelyrics

I’m rereading one of my favorite novels with a new interest after having spent an evening with Krishanu from India (that’s another story I wrote about in my blog post entitled “A New Friend.”) “Invitation to Tea” was written by Monica Lang and published first by The World Publishing Company in 1952, and then as a special edition exclusively by PEOPLES BOOK CLUB in Canada. It is her story about growing up in London, falling in love with a man who was born in India, and her life after deciding to leave all civilization and everything she ever knew in order to be the wife of a tea plantation owner in the jungle of Nagaland. The book was my only frame of reference when I would hear about people or things happening in the faraway, mysterious land of India – until we had Krish over for dinner.

Maybe 30 years ago, a friend from out of state recommended this book to me, and I loved it so much, I wanted to buy additional copies to share with my friends so we could enjoy reading and discussing it together. It was difficult to find “Invitation To Tea” since it was never widely published, so one of my friends and I decided to go to a second hand bookstore in Fullerton, California. The store owner overheard us talking about the book, and told us she had received a few copies from the author’s Granddaughter! It was so exciting to find out we might actually be able to meet with a relative of the author through this impromptu book store adventure!

A few months later, after my friend had read her copy of the book, we went to tea with Monica Lang’s Granddaughter. I really wish I would have kept in touch with her, because I only remember a couple of things she shared with us during our special time together.

Now that I am reading the book after learning so many things from Krish during our evening together, I am looking at maps, pulling up pictures of the different areas the author describes, and researching things like what a bungalow is. I’m taking my time to read the book this time, because I remember how much I didn’t want it to end when I have read it before. I may never travel across the ocean to such a faraway land, but I am really enjoying exploring India through Monica Lang’s words along with the videos and articles I’m finding to enhance what we learned from our new friend.