Varanasi, March 17 -- Even as concerns over LPG supply surface amid the ongoing West Asia conflict, the familiar culture of animated conversations over tea continues uninterrupted in Varanasi - thanks largely to the humble charcoal-fired chulha that still powers hundreds of neighbourhood tea stalls.

With over a thousand tea stalls across the city relying on such chulhas, the kettles in Banaras continue to boil - and the conversations show no sign of cooling.

Here they go: At a nearly seventy-year-old tea stall in Pandeypur locality, a teapan simmers on glowing embers as Amit Singh and Ravi Gupta wait for their kulhads, discussing the LPG situation.

Singh, a resident of Khajuri, says he recently tried to place an online order for an LPG...