I have read Rusi Dotiwala’s letter "‘Chikkotee’ culled from?” (Readers’ Forum, Parsiana, August 7, 2006). May I enlighten your readers on this subject? For a start, the word should be spelt as "chicotea.” As with many things associated with Parsis, the Raj was responsible for the inception of this practice.
There was a barber’s establishment, in Tardeo I believe, owned by one Dhunjishah Virjee. Every so often a group of English servicemen would go there for their close-cropped haircuts and would then retire into the back room of the shop to be served tea by their Parsi hairdressers — they were good clients, tipping generously and hence were well looked after by the staff. Now, as any coffee drinker will know, chicory is a substance that can be infused successfully into a cup of coffee (or indeed drunk by itself). However, the eccentric English would add chicory to their tea! And the Parsis who had cut their hair could do nothing but accede to their strange request. Virjee would sarcastically comment, in Gujarati, to the other Parsis there, "These stupid Englishmen deserve to be slapped hard on their recently shaven necks for being so stupid, having chicory with tea!” Naturally, much as they would have liked to, it was not possible to slap their necks for not only were the English their rulers, they also tipped well!
Soon some Parsis began to blindly copy the English and would turn up at the hairdressing saloon to have their hair cut short. Like the English, they would then retire into the back of the shop for tea — with chicory! Now this lot did not tip well — indeed rumor had it, they did not tip at all! So Virjee, much aggrieved, ordered his staff to put into practice what he had previously suggested — to slap hard the shaven necks of these Parsi clients. This was promptly done loud and hard to a verbal chorus of "chicotea” (combining the words chicory and tea), partly as punishment for their lack of tips and partly to let them know that one does not have chicory with tea but with coffee!
The practice which began thus is now no longer confined to hairdresser and client but to anyone who has had a haircut.
HOMI KOTWAL
Buckinghamshire, UK