The 'Go To' Tea Lady in India

[Randy W]

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The Family Chinese Leaders Take to Tea

 

from the WSJ

 

On Tuesday she will have tea with Li Keqiang, China’s new premier, when he visits India’s financial capital as part of a state visit to India.

Chinese leaders have made a habit of meeting Ms. Kotnis and her relatives ever since her brother, Dwarkanath Kotnis, volunteered as a field surgeon in the Sino-Japan war of 1938.

 

 

. . .

 

A large portrait of him rests on a stand in the living room of Ms. Kotnis’s apartment. There’s also a framed photo of him dressed in a suit in front of his former home in Solapur, a small town in Maharashtra.

 

Next to it hangs a black-and-white portrait of a young Chinese woman with pigtails wearing round rimmed spectacles: Dr Kotnis’ wife, Guo Qinglan.

 

In her previous meetings with the Chinese leadership, Ms. Kotnis would ask them to take care of Guo Qinglan.

 

“Now, she is no more,” she said. “So, on Tuesday, the only thing I will say is ‘I wish India and China are friends forever’”.