Preheat

I learn a lot from Les Menezes every time I meet him. One such lesson is when he makes me a cup of tea. While the tea is getting ready, he fills up the mugs with boiling water, lets it sit for a few minutes, dumps the water and then fills them with tea.

It is easy to get complacent when it comes to daily routines. We are habituated by ‘shortcuts’. But no such shortcuts for Les. He will meticulously follow the right process to ensure that the tea or coffee in the cup does not lose its heat to the container.

This is something that we can observe during gongfu tea ceremonies. The term literally means ‘making tea with skill’. The teapot will be filled with hot water, it will be poured into the cups and then the cups are emptied before hot tea is poured into them.

Athletes have warm-up routines to reduce chance of injury and increase performance. Actors perform vocal warm-ups to increase articulation and to avoid potential stuttering. Musicians have specific warm-ups that benefit them and their instruments.

We must ask ourselves what is the ‘preheat process’ that we follow to ensure that we are fully warmed up for the performance. We should start it with our cup of tea or coffee and also apply to more things that we do.

Don’t you let the warmth go down

Preheating is a practice profound

~ Pravin K Sabnis