In 1963 a young man called Satish Kumar walked from India to the four “nuclear capitals” of the world at the time – Moscow, Paris, London and Washington DC – to deliver a message of peace to their leaders. Travelling with no money and relying solely on the kindness of strangers, along the way he was given four packets of tea by a factory worker in Georgia, with the request to deliver the tea along with his message. The idea was that before deciding to press the nuclear button, those powerful men might stop and think for a moment, as they drank their tea.
Satish, now a world-renowned peace activist living in England and still active as Editor Emeritus of the magazine Resurgence and Ecologist, has given his personal endorsement to the Time for Tea programme, encouraging young people to follow in his footsteps. “Time for Tea is time to act” he says, “to make the world a better place, to let go of your prejudices, to take care of each other. Thank you for believing in young people.”