The Memphis Grizzlies defeated the Dallas Mavericks on Friday night to advance to the NBA playoffs after Ja Morant recovered from a sprained right ankle to score 22 points and add nine assists.
In a best-of-seven series starting on Sunday on the Thunder’s home court, Memphis will face Oklahoma City in a top-seeded matchup.
Morant was harmed on Tuesday night at Golden State during the Grizzlies’ opening play-in game and was questioned on Friday.
“The doctors gave me everything I needed in the simplest terms,” Morant said, whose availability was unknown until about 30 minutes before tip-off. I desired to stand on the floor. I wanted to win this game.
Desmond Bane had 22 points, while Jaren Jackson Jr. had 24 for Memphis.
Dallas had 40 points and nine rebounds in Anthony Davis’ favor. Thompson scored 18 points.
Ja Morant, a Memphis Grizzlies guard, drives the basket for the Dallas Mavericks at FedExForum[/Petre Thomas] in the third quarter.
Davis reportedly had a right calf injury in the fourth quarter. He made a brief return, but the game was not finished. After the game, he had an ice bag on his leg and a wrap while sat in the locker room. Davis claimed to make an effort to recover from the injury knowing it would be a win-or-die situation.
“We had a chance,” he said. A difficult loss, Davis said, “of course.”
A 25-point first-half lead fell away in the third quarter as the Mavericks put together a 27-12 run that stretched all the way to Memphis. Midway through the third period, the Mavericks’ deficit reached single digits.
The Grizzlies extended their lead to 96-80 heading into the fourth quarter, but Dallas never faced any threat.
Dallas, which defeated Sacramento on Wednesday night to earn a spot against the Grizzlies, didn’t appear to have the same spark as it did to start the game, never leading against Memphis.
For Memphis, Zach Edey scored 15 points and 11 rebounds, and Scotty Pippen Jr. added 13 points.
Memphis fell behind to Oklahoma City in all four of its regular-season games by double digits. In the first round, Jackson claimed the Grizzlies are considering a different scenario.
According to Jackson, “A series is a series.” You must maintain mental discipline. It really doesn’t matter until the game is over, whether you win or lose.
The Mavericks finished the season with a 7-15 record, just like Memphis did. After a trade that brought Davis to Dallas and sent Luka Doncic to the Lakers, they also lost Kyrie Irving, who had left knee surgery.
Some would say we shouldn’t even be there because of the change (Trading Doncic for AD) and injuries, according to Mavericks coach Jason Kidd. Give those locker room men a lot of credit, they said.
Herro leads the Heat past Hawks with 30 points.
Davion Mitchell did not appear to be a contender to win the NBA Play-In Tournament championship game against Miami in the opening half of the first half of the game’s elimination at Atlanta.
In the first half, Mitchell only managed one point and four of his shots. He still only had seven points at the end of the regulation.
Then something clicked for Mitchell. After the Heat and Atlanta were tied at 106 in overtime, Mitchell made three of four three-pointers in the extra period to give Miami the win on Friday night. Miami will face Cleveland, the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, in the postseason, with Mitchell finishing with 16 points.
Since the 2020-21 season’s introduction of the play-in format, the Heat became the first No. 10 seed in either conference to reach the postseason. With two road victories, Miami became the first play-in team to advance.
In overtime, Tyler Herro led Miami by 30 points with two 3s.
Herro had anticipated a scoring lead. Surprised, Mitchelll played the leading role. In the fourth quarter, he made a 3-pointer to make a warm-up for the extra period.
Erik Spoelstra, the Miami coach, said of Mitchell, “[t]he struggled like that in the first half and in that kind of fourth quarter and overtime really speaks to his character.”
Dallas Hawks guard Dyson Daniels passes behind Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro at State Farm Arena in the second half [Dale Zanine/Reuters]
Mitchell said Spoelstra and his teammates’ encouragement gave him the confidence to continue shooting, especially in overtime.
Mitchell said, “I felt like I was forcing it in the first half, trying too hard.”
“I just kind of reset my mind,” he said, “and let the game come to me.” I simply believe in the effort I put in. It’s okay if I miss shots, even if I don’t.
In Miami’s first Play-In Tournament victory against Chicago on Wednesday night, Mitchell averaged 7.9 points but added 15. He made each of his two 3-point attempts.
Mitchell returned to his native state to play his big game against the Hawks. Mitchell was born in Hinesville, Georgia, and he began his college education at Auburn before transferring to Baylor. He helped Baylor capture its first NCAA title.
According to state media, Tunisian opposition figures have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms.
40 people were sentenced on Saturday, including a former justice minister and diplomats, along with the country’s most senior opposition politicians. Critics claim that the accusations are false and that they represent the authoritarian rule of President Kais Saied.
According to an unnamed judicial official, the sentences ranged from 13 to 66 years in length, according to the TAP state news agency.
According to Jawhara FM, an anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office official claimed that the defendants had engaged in “foreign powers” to undermine Saied’s rule and had been found guilty of “conspiracy against state security” and “belonging to a terrorist group.”
The trial’s specific details are still ambiguous, with the trial’s exact number and the disputed charges that stand in their way.
On Saturday, it was unclear whether all of the estimated 40 defendants in the case, which has been ongoing for about two years, had been found guilty and sentenced to prison.
The French intellectual Bernard-Henri Levy, who is accused of acting as a liaison between defendants and foreign parties, was among the 20 defendants who have fled Tunisia and were sentenced in absentia.
President Saied has used violence against political opponents and dissidents by using arbitrary detention and arbitrary prosecutions against them, according to Bassam Khawaja, deputy director of Human Rights Watch for the Middle East and North Africa, to attack Al Jazeera earlier this month.
After the judge finished reading the accusations and deliberating without the defense or the prosecution, the defense lawyers decried the trial on Friday evening.
“I have never been in a situation like this in my entire life.” Lawyer Ahmed Souab claimed that the rulings are final, and what is happening is scandalous and shameful. “It’s a farce.
Authorities have charged the defendants with trying to destabilize the nation and overthrow Saeed, including former head of intelligence Kamel Guizani and media figures.
Since being detained in 2023, several of the defendants have been in custody, including Jawhar Ben Mubarak, Ghazi Chaouachi, and Issam Chebbi. The National Salvation Front coalition, which includes Chebbi, is in operation.
On Friday, Chebbi stated that “the authorities want to criminalize the opposition.”
Said refutes claims that he is a dictator. He claimed that any judge who would convict the accused politicians would be an accomplice in 2023 and that they were “traitors and terrorists.”
Saied consolidated his position in 2021 by sacking the then-prime minister and resolving the parliament.
He was accused of staging a “coup” by the opposition leaders involved in the case.
They claim that the charges brought against them were made to stifle the opposition and establish a one-man, repressive regime.
Some of Tunisia’s most renowned opposition figures are already imprisoned.
Ennahdha’s head, Rached Ghannouchi, was detained in April 2023 and given a year in prison for incitement-related charges.
Bangkok, Thailand – As Myanmar slowly recovers from the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that killed thousands in March, an even greater catastrophe continues to shape the nation’s future – this one man-made.
Myanmar remains gripped by a civil war and after four years of fighting the military regime finds itself increasingly encircled.
But the impact of the earthquake could prove decisive for the conflict in the coming year.
Striking in Myanmar’s central Sagaing Region on March 28, the quake killed at least 3,649 people, with more than 5,000 injured and 145 still missing, according to figures from the military government.
The seismic shock flattened houses, factories, Buddhist pagodas, apartment blocks and brought down bridges and ripped up roads in Sagaing city and nearby Mandalay.
It also disrupted electricity supplies to factories producing munitions for the military, said Tin Lin Aung, a former major in Myanmar’s army who defected to the resistance movement in 2022.
In a clear sign that military supplies are stretched, bullet and artillery casings recently captured from government forces bear this year’s manufacturing date, Tin Lin Aung said.
“When I was in the military, we used to joke that some of the bullets were older than us,” he said.
“Now they are being used straight away,” he said.
The reported interruption to the military’s ammunition production comes as areas the army still controls in Myanmar are surrounded on almost all sides by longstanding ethnic armed groups and newer armed opposition forces.
Despite this, the military maintains an iron grip on the country’s major cities and core critical infrastructure.
Hemmed into urban strongholds, the military has tried to reverse its losses through indiscriminate air strikes and burning villages in rural areas – a campaign the United Nations suspects involves war crimes.
People clear debris at a damaged Buddha statue at Lawka Tharaphu pagoda in Inwa on the outskirts of Mandalay on April 12, 2025 [Sai Aung Main/AFP]
‘More momentum than the military’
Sagaing city was devastated by the quake and it remains under military control, while much of the surrounding countryside is governed by a patchwork of resistance militias – such as the People’s Defence Force (PDF) – which are loosely coordinated by the opposition National Unity Government (NUG).
The NUG declared a truce in earthquake-affected areas until April 20, except for “defensive operations”, yet the military’s operations have continued.
According to the NUG, the Myanmar military’s aerial and artillery attacks killed at least 72 civilians between the quake striking on March 28 until April 8. Two more civilians, including a 13-year-old girl, died from bombing by military aircraft on April 10, the Myanmar Now news outlet reports.
A Sagaing-based PDF fighter who requested anonymity said some rebel units had pivoted to relief efforts in central Myanmar even though their military adversaries were taking advantage of the lull in battle.
“Since the quake, the military has used the Sagaing-Monywa road more confidently because of the truce,” she said. But PDF forces in Sagaing expect fighting to intensify after the April truce is over.
“The PDF has more momentum than the military here,” she told Al Jazeera, adding that the NUG is now “coordinating better with ethnic armed organisations”.
“There will be more fighting in coming months,” said Ko Ko Gyi of the Sagaing PDF’s Battalion 3.
Regional security analyst Anthony Davis said he doubted the earthquake would distract the military from its strategic objectives, adding that most soldiers had stayed in their garrisons rather than help with relief efforts.
“The military isn’t taking time off to save people. They’ll keep up the air strikes and, where possible, launch ground offensives to weaken the PDF,” Davis said.
But it is western Rakhine State – largely spared from the earthquake – that is still the most consequential battleground currently, he said.
There, the rebel Arakan Army (AA) has clashed with the military’s forces around the state capital Sittwe and Kyaukphyu, the site of a key pipeline that transports gas from across Myanmar to China.
The AA has simultaneously pushed out of its home territory in the west of the country and into Myanmar’s central heartlands in Magwe, Bago and Ayeyarwady regions, Davis said.
“They are the swing player who can significantly move this conflict one way or another,” he added.
Commanding an estimated 40,000 soldiers, the AA has a proven record of defeating the military regime’s forces.
In eastern Myanmar’s Kayah State, a senior resistance commander said the earthquake had underscored the suffering of displaced communities who “bear the brunt of the ongoing wars”.
“The side who’s willing to care for the people can sway public opinion and will succeed in the coming battles,” he said.
In the north and northwest, the military is on the back foot.
The Kachin Independence Army captured Indaw town in the northern Sagaing Region on April 7 after an eight-month siege, despite declaring its own post-quake truce. Chin resistance forces recently gained control of Falam township in western Myanmar – though they had not announced any ceasefire.
Political analyst Kyaw Hsan Hlaing said the military is still grappling with the aftermath of the earthquake and that may create openings for the AA and others to seize more towns.
“However, any such gains would likely be incremental, as the military’s longstanding control and ability to adapt, especially in regions like Bago and Magwe, even under crisis conditions remain significant,” he said.
“In the long term, the earthquake is unlikely to fundamentally shift the balance of power in Myanmar,” he said.
‘Divine intervention’
While the earthquake has not dealt a decisive blow to military rule, the quake has delivered a psychic shock to the regime’s generals.
In a country where astrology and superstition guide the highest political decisions, many interpret the natural disaster as a cosmic rebuke against Myanmar’s military leadership.
“They see this earthquake as divine intervention – punishment for the mistakes of the king. From what I hear, they are not blaming him [regime leader Min Aung Hlaing] directly. But there are questions about his leadership and capacity,” said former major Tin Lin Aung, who still maintains contacts within the secretive military establishment.
According to Tin Lin Aung, the regime has ordered civil servants nationwide to recite a protective Buddhist chant nine times daily for nine consecutive days. The number nine has auspicious symbolism in Buddhist tradition.
He also described growing confusion within the ranks over the regime’s response to the earthquake – appealing for international aid and assistance, declaring a truce, while also continuing its attacks.
“They know the people hate them more and more, and their leader seems lost,” he said.
Richard Horsey, senior Myanmar adviser at the International Crisis Group, said even if Myanmar military’s commander-in-chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing dismisses these supernatural interpretations, the fact that his inner circle takes them seriously creates real vulnerability. Instead of causing an internal coup, he suggested the quake as a bad omen would more likely signal the erosion of Min Aung Hlaing’s authority and the rise of open criticism.
“You go from there to people feeling they can just ignore his orders and do their own thing because everyone else agrees with them, not him,” he said.
Political analyst Kyaw Hsan Hlaing said some sources suggest that beliefs in the quake as a portent of collapse for military rule may be used to push the narrative that the regime needs to “act decisively to regain control”.
Superstition is just one of many factors shaping the military’s decisions in the conflict, he added.
The earthquake has also “done enormous damage to the basic fabric of Myanmar,” Horsey said, noting that Mandalay’s residents are potentially facing relocation due to extensive housing damage.
Given the scale of the quake, it would likely affect the civil war – “but in ways that are hard to predict”, he said.
People gathered on the banks of the Irrawaddy River in front of the collapsed Ava Bridge, also known as the Inwa Bridge, in Mandalay on April 13, 2025 [Sai Aung Main/AFP]
Criticised for its ineffectual and disinterested response to earthquake victims, along with continued attacks at a time of national emergency, the military’s poor reputation has plummeted even further in the eyes of the people and its adversaries.
The powerful ethnic armed groups involved in the conflict will probably be even more unwilling to negotiate for peace with the military following the quake, Horsey said.
“Even if you could get a spirit of compromise, which seems not to exist”, few would believe the military’s sincerity in adhering to any peace deal or ceasefire document.
Using the ancient wartime law that the administration of President Donald Trump previously invoked to send hundreds of people to El Salvador, the US Supreme Court has ordered a temporary stop to two Venezuelan men’s deportation.
After their lawyers filed an urgent petition citing an imminent risk of removal without the proper process, the country’s top court issued the order to stop the men in immigration custody early on Saturday. The Trump administration’s response to the court’s authority could be impacted by the decision, leading to even a constitutional crisis.
In an unsigned order, the justices wrote that the government must not remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until this Court makes a further order.
Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, two of the Supreme Court’s nine justices, disagreed with the decision.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed an emergency appeal in response to the court’s decision, arguing that it appeared that immigration authorities were moving to restart removals in accordance with the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
A heated debate surrounds the constitutional authority of the US over Trump’s use of the wartime legislation, which was last used during World War II, to deport alleged Tren de Aragua gang members in claiming they are “conducting irregular warfare” in the US.
In April, the Supreme Court had ruled that deportations could only occur if those who were about to be removed had a chance to argue their case in court and had “reasonable time” to file a lawsuit against their pending removals.
“The Court’s temporary blocking of the removals is greatly gratifying to us.” Without ever having had access to proper legal counsel, these individuals were in imminent danger of spending the rest of their lives imprisoned in a brutal Salvadorian prison, according to ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt in an email to The Associated Press.
The decision has not yet been made public by the White House.
The US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has not yet taken action, which has prompted the ACLU to submit a petition directly to the Supreme Court. Two federal judges have refused to intervene in stopping the most recent deportation proceedings.
Some of the men had already been loaded onto buses, according to the ACLU, and their deportations were announced.
A government lawyer claimed at a hearing on Friday that he was unaware of DHS’s plans to deport the men that day but that there might be deportations on Saturday.
I spoke with DHS, she said. In a separate but related case, Justice Department lawyer Drew Ensign told a district court that they are unaware of any current plans for flights tomorrow.
238 alleged Venezuelan gang members and 23 alleged Salvadoran gang members were taken to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador in March by the Trump administration.
Despite a US federal judge’s temporary suspension of the expulsions, the deportations occurred.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a resident of the US state of Maryland, was one of the deported people who had secured a protection order to stop the detention.
Garcia was later found guilty of violating a separate Supreme Court order to bring him back to the US, but the Trump administration later acknowledged this.
It’s “very obvious that the president” is “blatantly, flagrantly… defying the order from the Supreme Court,” said Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen, who met with Garcia on Thursday in El Salvador.
In Beijing’s Yizhuang half-marathon, humans won the race and won the race with ease.
In a world-first 21 km (13 miles, 352 yards) challenge on Saturday in the Chinese capital, thousands of runners took on 21 human-roboid robot competitors.
Not all bots, however, were capable of solving the problem. One fell to its feet moments after the initial gun went off, and the other lay motionless for a while. After a few quick steps, another hit a wall, causing its handler to fall as well.
Some machines made it to the finish line, but they still badly outpaced humans. The Beijing Innovation Center of Human Robotics’ Tiangong Ultra clocks in at 2 hours, 40 minutes. More than an hour prior, the men’s champion finished.
These are generally interesting demonstrations, according to Alan Fern, a professor of robotics at Oregon State University, but they don’t really show how useful work or any other basic intelligence can be.
He Sishu, a local AI engineer who was watching from the sidelines, observed that the robots are running very well and stable.
Although technically speaking, the robots weren’t exactly autonomous athletes. Some of the engineers were traveling alone, and some needed physical support to maintain balance.
Chinese businesses like DroidVP and Noetix Robotics produced robots of all sizes and shapes, with a few of them sporting headbands and boxing gloves. Officials compared the competition to a traditional race, with more of a motorsport vibe.
Ashish Bandopadhyay, 65, has ridden the 10 minutes from his home to a tea shop in Serampore, which is located about 30 kilometers (19 miles) away from Kolkata, on a warm morning in March.
Dressed in a pastel pink polo shirt, Ashish takes charge of the shop, declaring it’s his “turn” to run it today. As he works to make a fresh pot of cha (the Bengali word for tea), he smiles as he declares, “I don’t work here.” “I’m just an old-timer and a customer who enjoys volunteering,” I tell myself.
Located in the old part of the town, this hole-in-the-wall shop is locally known as Naresh Shomer cha er dokaan (Naresh Shome’s tea shop). The production and sharing of tea is a significant component of social bonds in India.
And that’s the focus of this tea shop. For a century, it has been a space for relaxation, conversation and shared moments. However, it expands the social bond by requiring customers to brew and serve tea as well.
Since he was ten years old, Ashish, who has since left his construction-related office job, has been stopping by this tea shop. It is where he meets friends to catch up over a cup of tea.
Ashok Chakroborty, owner of the store, opens the store on a weekday morning and then departs for his office job.
“Until the time he returns in the evening, one of us assumes control over running the shop. Today was my turn”, Ashish says. Ten volunteers work in the shop seven days a week, total. None are compensated; the majority of them are volunteer customers who, like Ashish, have retired and have received pensions from their former employers.
Today, Ashish arrived at the shop at 9am and closed for lunch at noon. At 3 o’clock, he reopened. I prefer to stay here for the majority of the week, if not every day. After my departure, another person steps into my role”, he says.
“Whoever is free does it does it,” Ashish says, without a fixed rota. After using the money to purchase milk or sugar, we store it in a wooden box on the shelf. And there hasn’t been a single day without a caretaker”.
When Ashish isn’t helping out at the tea shop, he enjoys visiting with his friends [Diwash Gahatraj/Al Jazeera]
Naresh Chandra Shome’s legacy
Little has changed in the 100 years the five-by-seven-foot tea shop has been going – “except for a few whitewashes and a ceiling repair”, Ashish notes. The traditional coal-fired traditional clay stove’s exposed walls are dark with soot and smoke from despite the layers of paint.
With a refillable price of only five rupees (approximately $0.06), tea can still be consumed in both paper and clay cups.
The shop offers a modest tea menu with simple, straightforward options. Customers can choose between Kobiraji cha (black tea with spices) and milk tea, which is served plain or with lemon, or milk tea. The bakery’s offerings are completed by jars of biscuits.
Situated across from Chatra Kali Babu’s Crematorium, family members often come for tea after bidding farewell to loved ones.
Naresh Chandra Shome, a tea company with roots in India’s colonial era, founded the business. Shome’s current owner, Ashok, only knows about him because he left his job to fight for freedom in that time.
Following India’s independence from British rule in 1947, Shome joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and remained an active member until his death in 1995 at the age of 77. His tea shop has been a gathering place for comrades for his entire life, where they would meet, eat, and exchange ideas over cups of tea.
The current location of the tea shop is close to the local CPI (M) office. “Shome was a helpful man and was active in community service. His store was well-known at the time. He’s seen in a photo in the party office, claims 54-year-old Prashanto Mondal, a regular customer at the tea shop.
He recalls how he was first brought to the shop by a colleague during a lunch break 25 years ago.
The LPG gas delivery agent explains that Serampore has many tea stalls, but I frequently visit them because of the shop’s unique atmosphere and sense of camaraderie.
After Ashish has finished his tea, Prashanto rises to assist him in recharging the oven’s coal. Like Prashanto, most customers help with duties such as fetching milk from the nearby shop or filling water from the tap.
According to Ashish, “We have heard tales of Naresh Shome during his activist days.” He would frequently leave the store without warning because he needed to go to the community or be taken by the police, always asking his customers to take care of the place. I believe this legacy has endured – customers naturally take responsibility for the tea shop in the owner’s absence – the test of time”.
Customers give cash for their tea in a small wooden box [Diwash Gahatraj/Al Jazeera]
From the colonial era to Bengali adda and chas
In about 1925, Shome opened the tea shop on the ground floor of the building owned by his aunt. The 350-year-old building on the banks of the Hooghly River also housed a number of different types of shops, including one that sold utensils, before becoming a gathering place for tea drinkers and conversationalists.
The ceiling’s exposed wooden beams appear to carry the weight of history. The thick limestone walls stand as silent witnesses to the many Bengali, Danish and English people who’ve passed through over the years. The shop faces Chatra Ghat, a riverside burial site where Hindus have for generations buried their dead. Traditional wood pyres are now replaced by a contemporary electric crematorium.
The town of Serampore, home to about 200, 000 people, predates the West Bengal capital of Kolkata by a few centuries and has been ruled at times by both the Danes and the British. From 1755 to 1845, the town was a Danish trading post known as Frederiksnagore until the British took control and remained so until 1947 when it gained its independence.
Once, horse-driven carriages once carried American officers and their families through the streets. Today, the bylanes bustle with motorbikes, electric rickshaws and cars. Tall apartment buildings built in the more recent years are juxtaposed by buildings of European style.
[Diwash Gahatraj/Al Jazeera] The tea shop sells about 200 cups of tea per day.
Local restoration activist Mohit Ranadip explains that the tea shop holds an important position in the cultural history of Serampore. The Serampore Heritage Restoration Initiative, a town-based citizen-led organization dedicated to protecting and promoting the town’s heritage, is led by Ranadip.
He claims that Adda and paraculture are still very relevant in the [Chatra] region and that is one of the reasons the tea shop is still so well-known.
In West Bengal, para culture loosely refers to a neighbourhood or locality, defined by a strong sense of community. Every para has its adda spot, whether it’s a park, street, or tea shop, invariably. West Bengalians are a fan of Adda, a beloved pastime. Markedly different from mere small talk or chatting, it is best described as an informal group conversation that’s long, fluid and relaxed in nature. These gatherings are always bound together by a cup of cha.
Naresh Shome’s tea shop, which is a focal point for this adda tradition, draws people from all walks of life to congregate and exchange their daily experiences over steaming cups of tea in the Chatra neighborhood.
Prashanto and his colleagues, Karthick and Amal, discussed the remaining gas cylinders they had to deliver by the end of the day. Some individuals made their own quick tea. Anima Kar, who came with her daughter to catch up with her brother, was one of the evening’s visitors, who was more at ease.
The state of West Bengal’s connection with tea also runs deep. The tea industry flourished in the Darjeeling hills during the British Raj, which is located 600 kilometers north of Serampore. Darjeeling and the surrounding area were the first to have commercial tea gardens. The emerald green tea estates of Darjeeling still produce some of the world’s most expensive tea.
In 1995, Ashok Chakroborty took over the tea shop’s operation [Diwash Gahatraj/Al Jazeera].
Ashok leaves his clerical job at around 6 o’clock in the evening. Wearing an olive green T-shirt, he takes over from Ashish, seamlessly continuing the shop’s daily rhythm.
Lakhirani Dakhi, the building’s owner, has son-in-law Ashok. Since Shome’s death, he has been in charge of the store.
“Today Ashish da (brother) gave me 400 rupees ($4.65) as the day’s income”, says Ashok, as he poured tea into clay cups. He claims that customers who refuse to pay their tea always always return the correct amount to the cash box or pay it back later.
He continues, “We sell about 200 cups every day.”  ,
[Diwash Gahatraj/Al Jazeera] Anima Kar, who is red, has been visiting the tea shop since she was a child.
A “question mark” for the future
“I love the tea with masala (spice mixture) made by Ashok da”, says 50-year-old Anima, who has been a customer for years. This tea shop is our humble equivalent, according to the saying “If Kolkata has a coffee house where people meet for some quality time and adda, then.”
Anima recalls Shome fondly and used to accompany her father when she was a child. Now, she sometimes visits with her family. The tea shop is still a enduring symbol of tradition, community service, and a love of tea. People are drawn to tea every morning and every evening by a profound sense of belonging and shared history, according to Anima.
At 9pm, Ashok pours the last pot of tea for the four remaining customers and prepares to call it a day.
He has started to worry about the future of his recognizable store in recent months.
“I have no idea how the younger generation will carry on this cherished trust legacy. There are very few visitors from the younger generation who come and participate in the tea shop”, he says.
Ashok’s son, according to him, is an engineer and hasn’t shown much interest in the store.
Restoration activist Ranadip shares his concerns, saying, “The younger generation has little time for adda, which seriously skews the future of the store like this.”
