CHENNAI: When you hurry up to finish your tea within your 15-minute tea break, you might not possibly notice the environment around you or enjoy it. Contrary to this, Tea Boy Pro in Anna Nagar offers a sight you cannot miss. Joining the chess craze of the city, they have adorned the entire tea shop in black and white squares, dressed the staff in black and white T-shirts and placed a chess board on the table where you drink your tea, to turn your tea break into a chess break. Thambi, the mascot, welcomes you to the shop and via all these, they have branded their tea as the welcome drink of Chennai.

It all started when Joseph Rajesh, the owner of the outlet and a chess enthusiast, decided to do his bit for supporting the Olympiad, two weeks ago. It was an entire day’s work to decorate the store in a chess theme. According to Nilavazhagan, a staff member at the shop wanted to be a symbol of the igniting chess enthusiasm. He says, “When people speak about the changes made in the city to welcome the people to the Olympiad, they should remember us. Though we haven’t conducted a re-design on a large scale, we hope that we have expressed the thought of extending support to the players.”

The store gathered more attention when VP Jeyaseelan, IAS, shared the news with his followers on Twitter. Since then, people have come from other cities to see the spot and have tea and snacks. Whether it’s the sparkling wonder in the eyes of the kids, the happiness of the foreigners on seeing Thambi at a tea shop, or the selfies taken in the background of the black and white squares, people are enjoying the design.

Purushothaman, a regular visitor to the tea shop and an employee of Kotak Life, shares that the redesign was an innovative thought, “Now, my tea breaks are a little long because I feel like playing chess with my colleagues for a few minutes before going back to work. Also, what the outlet owner and his staff have done is something that should be applauded. Seeing the government’s initiative, they got inspired to do something in their own way. I hope that initiatives like these continue for festivals and other events. These are all instances where everyone is one, voicing the same opinion and extending the same support.”