Chhota haazri

Chhota haazri or Chota hazri was a meal served in households and barracks, particularly in northern British India, shortly after dawn.
In subsequent years, the tradition of such a meal has disappeared, but the phrase lives on in Anglo-Indian households, certain regiments of the Indian Army, and in public schools —such as Bishop Cotton School Shimla, The Doon School, Dehradun, Colonel Brown Cambridge School, Dehradun, Mayo College, Ajmer, and St. Paul's School, Darjeeling, where it has come to refer to a cup of tea or hot milk with biscuits served early in the morning at around 6:00 a.m.

Historical use of the word

The Russian traveller and writer Princess Olga Alexandrovna Shcherbatova mentions partaking of "Chota Hazri" while visiting Mumbai in January 1891. She describes the meal, in Russian, as "the first morning tea, which in addition to biscuits and tea is always served with fruit: bananas, oranges, etc."
In 1912 explorer Aurel Stein wrote the following during an expedition across the mountains of Pashtunistan:
In The Jim Corbett omnibus in the man-eating leopard of Rudraprayag Jim Corbett wrote the following during the leopard hunt:
In 1947, during the political integration of the Indian princely states, the word 'Chhota Hazri' was used as a pun to refer to a small princely state in an ironic way.
'Chota Hazri' was the name of a highly successful thoroughbred horse in British Horse racing around mid twentieth century.