CHA PAANA BIRATI

In 1979, as a 10 year old cricket fan, I was watching a match between the touring Australian team and India at Barabati Stadium, Cuttack, Odisha. The gallery was full of transistor wielding spectators. During the afternoon  tea break announced the Odia commentator the same as  "CHA PAANA BIRATI", meaning tea break. The person who was next to me gave me some unsolicited information, that the players will go outside for tea and chew a few betel leaves (PAAN) during this break, hence the name "CHA PAANA BIRATI". I believed him and imagined Alan Border along with Kim Hughes going out to a kiosk outside and ordering GOPAL ZARDA (scented tobacco0 PAAN), followed by a "Cutting Chai", brewed from a coal oven. However I took it for granted that Rabi Panda, a player representing Odisha those days probably have done so.