Coffee Hangouts!

Coffee Hangouts!

Cafe Conversations VI

Cafe Conversations
Saturday, 1:00 pm

Zahir looked amusingly at Abhijeet. Watching him nervous and worked out was a treat in itself for Zahir. Moreover, Abhijeet had even ignored his favourite salsa sandwich, which definitely meant he was apprehensive.

“Dude, she is a girl and not a monster who is going to eat you up.” Zahir said, trying to joke about it in a failed attempt to lighten up Abhijeet’s mood.

Abhijeet - “I am meeting her for the first time Zahir! We never actually talked after school.”

Zahir – “So you mean, in school she was a normal girl and now she is some gothic creepy creature?”

 “It is not funny. You know we did not interact much even in school. This whole idea of ‘catching up’ on Facebook was an idiocy.” Abhijeet said putting his face in his palms, almost panting.

Zahir – “You are hyperventilating. Look at you, it is just a date and c’mon, let us go into the realms of history, and you will find that you have had many!”

Abhijeet – “This is different! This is freaking different! And Tanya, she is... she is... different.

Zahir – “And that is the only word the language of English has – different! Weird and cramped language, this English is!”

Abhijeet – “English! Yeah! She is even an English honour! How the hell am I ever going to talk to her?”

“So she has a degree! Big deal, you are also quite okay, buddy!”  Zahir said laughing and patting Abhijeet’s back.

“I might have something for the young lad, other than just luscious dishes today!” K.D. Uncle’s voice filled the quiet and relatively less crowded ambience of the Cafe. “Ah! Those good old dating days!”

Abhijeet – “Anything would help, Uncle! I am sincerely hoping that this one goes ahead. She is the girl right out of my dreams! She is even a Classical singer!”

Zahir – “Dude, will you stop running her advertisement campaign around here already?”

K.D. Uncle – “It’s alright Zahir. I can understand. So my boy Abhijeet, I will tell you three things that will help you cruise through this as smoothly as a speed boat.”

Abhijeet sat straight, listening to every bit of word escaping K.D. Uncle’s mouth, who continued like a saint.

“First and foremost, make her laugh! And for that, follow the basic marketing principle of ‘Know you audience’. You need to know what kind of a person she is, her background, her character and her likes and dislikes before you attempt to be jocular. You don’t want to crack jokes that might offend her!”

K.D. Uncle paused to take a sip from his cup of tea. Abhijeet looked at him impatiently while Zahir enjoyed the whole scene.

“Don’t ever go for those lame lines, that I will call the ‘attraction killers’.”

Abhijeet – “Attraction killers?”

K.D. Uncle – “The questions that reek of desperation – ‘do you think we are a good match’, ‘do you like me’ etc. Avoid these attraction killers on the first date. They just create an awkward void and nothing else!”

Abhijeet – “So, what’s the third?”

K.D. Uncle – “Third one is the simple vintage advice – be sensitive and caring towards the girl, or any girl for that matter, and you have the way to her heart! Be chivalrous, open doors for her, whisper in her ear, make soft but effective gestures, try to keep her happy... and still remember, that she wants a man in her life, so don’t be supplicating!”

Zahir – “How are you so sure that these will work, Uncle?”

“Let us just say Zahir that my wounds have become wisdom.” K.D. Uncle winked and got up, thus maintaining the secrecy about his personal life.

Abhijeet was deep in thought, thinking about implementing K.D. Uncle’s advice on his date which was in an hour. As K.D. Uncle walked towards the counter, he suddenly stopped and turned.

“And Abhijeet, one bonus advice for you...”

Abhijeet looked up like a knowledge-hungry child.
“Good cologne won’t be a bad idea!”



#Brownsworth

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Cafe Conversations V

Cafe Conversations
Tuesday, 7:30 pm

“Hola Amigos!” waved Saanvi as she entered the café. Abhijeet and Zahir who were too much caught up watching the cricket match ignored her.

“H-E-L-L-O!! Did you guys ignore me ‘coz those men chasing and hitting a ball are more important?” said Saanvi loud enough to make them feel her presence.

“Shhhhhh..!” Abhijeet and Zahir tried to shush her with finger on their lips. The game was indeed more important. Saanvi was visibly annoyed.

The Indian team captain was preparing himself for the last ball. They only needed two runs to win. It was a do or die situation. 
Abhijeet and Zahir paid complete attention to the television screen.

Saanvi couldn’t take it. Nobody cared to respond to her hello. “Fine! If you think that the match is more important than…”

“Oh Snap! He missed” shrieked Zahir.

“You should have waited for the last ball to finish Saanvi. We only needed two runs!” said Abhijeet as he moved away from the television screen.

“Oh yeah now blame me!” said Saanvi rolling her eyes. “Anyways I wanted to give you guys a good news.”

Zahir opened his mouth to speak but before he could utter any word she shook her head saying, “No-No, Don’t start guessing. I know you will come up with something stupid. So before you spoil it here it is...” She opened her bag and took out a piece of paper to show them, “I got promoted!” grinned Saanvi.

“Whoa! Great news! That calls for a date. So what are your plans this evening?” winked Abhijeet as he high-fived Saanvi.

“A Date? With you?” said Saanvi with a not-so-interested look. She knew Abhijeet is a flirt.

“Why not? What’s wrong with me?” asked Abhijeet with his confident smile.

“Go ask the mirror it will tell you better.” replied Saanvi.
Abhijeet- “FYI. Mirrors don’t talk.”

“Lucky for you they don’t laugh either.” chuckled Zahir. Saanvi giggled and shared a high-five with Zahir.

“Ha-Ha! Very funny Zahir… You are so funny.” said Abhijeet with an annoyed straight face.

Zahir looked up from Saanvi’s promotion letter and asked, “So… Risk Review Manager, Ahaan? That’s great. How long have you been working for them?”

“Du-uh! Ever since they threatened to sack me!” answered Saanvi.

“Why so much trouble? I mean… your parents must be after your life, nagging you all the time to get married. ” said Abhijeet teasing Saanvi.

“So? Marriage doesn't mean it’s the end of the world and I'm in no hurry. There’s a long way to go.” countered Saanvi as she leaned back to her couch with her cup of coffee.

Zahir- “You will continue to work after marriage? You think the guy’s family will take that? Well... I don’t want to crash your dreams but let me make you familiar with the society; they don’t really appreciate women working after marriage. I am sure a lot of them do but then managing work with family etc. etc.”

Abhijeet cuts him in, “And moreover what if you earn more than your husband? It will hurt his ego. Wouldn't it be unfair to him?”

“Oh c’mon guys! Is all of this coming from you? Alright, how does it matter if I plan to manage work and family together? And if I earn more, it will anyway add up to the family’s total income. You tell me, wouldn't it be unfair if the guy has to earn for the entire family all alone? Wouldn’t I be a burden for him? Adding up to the misery? Ever thought it that way?” said Saanvi with a smile. She was sure she left them both thinking and flabbergasted.

They sipped their coffee without looking at each other.




#Ester Demitasse

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Cafe Conversations IV

Cafe Conversations
Saturday, 7:00 pm

K.D uncle sat in the café perusing the morning newspaper. Zahir was staring out from the window sipping his piping hot cuppa.

 Minutes later the door flung open and in came Abhijeet, his face brimming with glee.

Abhijeet- “Morning people! Guess what’s new?”

K.D Uncle- “What? New pair of shoes?”

Abhijeet- “No.”

Zahir- “Oh! Praise the Lord! Did you finally dump your tattered boxers? The ones with little blue ships on them?”

Abhijeet- “Ha! Dream on!”

K.D Uncle- “Piercing? Umm.. A new tattoo?”

 Abhijeet- “God No! My parents would put me up for adoption if I did.”

K.D Uncle chuckled and said “Well then, what is it?”

 “My jacket! I bought it yesterday. Pure leather, an exclusive from the fall winter collection by D&G.” said Abhijeet with a wink and a broad smile. He probably copied that from the salesman of the store.

K.D Uncle- “Dolce and Gabbana? Aren’t they the million dollar homosexual pair?”

Zahir- “They WERE. They split in 2008. Plus the Italian government does not allow same sex couples the same protection as non homosexuals. However same gender sexual activity between men or women isn’t criminal.”

 K.D Uncle- “Fortunate enough, not to have been born in India.”

“And what if they were?”, interrupted Abhijeet as he picked up a cookie. “Let’s say that in an alternate universe D&G or Dholchand and Ganguram fall for each other. What then?”

“They will have to elope to a whole another time zone! Or else their families will create a hell for them.” answered Zahir.

“Or worse they’d be sacrificed by Khap Panchayats or they will be made to parade on the street, that too NUDE.” said K.D Uncle.

Abhijeet- “It is a concept that people find outrageous and repulsive. They try finding ‘cures’ for this ‘condition’, but today, the younger generation and a tiny fraction of their predecessors have different 
views.”

Zahir- “The Supreme court was of a different opinion though. It has further aggravated the matter by recriminalizing homosexual activity.”

Abhijeet- “It is ridiculous how government agencies, at the state level refuse to provide them services just because of their sexual orientation”

Zahir- “What I fail to comprehend though, is that how can basic human rights of this community be overlooked by the court, just because they are a miniscule fraction of the population? That’s equivalent to saying ‘Hey, I’m Muslim. Feel free to shoot me in the head anytime!’ I thought the constitution stating rights to equality, protection etc applied to each and every homosexual as it does to heterosexuals.”

K.D Uncle- “And what’s more, years of hard work put in by the LGBT community have been set back a 100 years because of this decision. This only inhibits the nation’s development and beats the whole point of democracy.”

Abhijeet relieved a sigh, “Well gentlemen, ‘tis a land of wretched politicos with criminal records like the length of my mum’s shopping list. Men with raging libidos may be tolerated, but sensibility and benevolence, most certainly not.”

“The least we can do is be non judgmental and put ourselves in their shoes”, said Zahir as he got up to leave. “Respect them and their choices, right Uncle?”

K.D. Uncle - “Absolutely Son. Absolutely!”

 “Let’s hope the court finds its common sense before Baba Ramdev’s medicinal miracles find them!!” chuckled Abhijeet and they all shared a good laugh at it.




#Arushi Mathur

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Cafe Conversations III

Cafe Conversations
Wednesday, 4.30 pm

“….also Dhruv is flying down this weekend we can ask him to join us!” said Zahir excited about the weekend plans. They were planning a small get together for the school friends.

“Well, I am not sure about him… It will get a little awkward when he will talk about his life in London, his university, girls there and how much fun his life is.” said Abhijeet, he envied Dhruv for his ways. “How I wish to be at his place and live his life!”

“Stop Abhi… Don’t you start with that again…! It’s not all that exciting.” Zahir moved his hand in the air. He didn’t want to listen to any of Abhijeet’s crap (that’s what he considered it to be). He gets back to his laptop searching for old school friends on a social network and suddenly exclaims with his eyes wide open. “Hey Look!!”


“What is it?” questions Abhijeet with a concerned look.

Zahir- “You remember that girl named Fatima from school?”

Abhijeet- “Umm…Fatima…?!? The one who stood 1st in junior annual quiz?”

Zahir - “Yes! Exactly! Look at this…” turns his laptop towards 
Abhijeet, “She is married!”

Abhijeet exclaims out loud “How is that possible! She was almost 6 years younger. I remember she was my cousin’s classmate.”

Zahir- “I don’t know. Isn’t it too soon to be married?”

“Of course it is!” snaps back Abhijeet, “What were her parents thinking? She was such a bright kid… How can they? Don’t they love their daughter?”

“What is the fuss all about young chap?” interrupts K.D. Uncle, the owner of the café.

Zahir- “Just wondering how the society still follows forbidden customs… A 16 year old girl from school got married. Can you believe it Uncle?”

K.D. Uncle- “Well, that’s not a new story. Such system still prevails and there are loads of people who are a part of it.”

Abhijeet- “But she was from a well off, modern and educated family. I used to meet her parents many times during school’s parent-teacher meetings. It wasn’t expected from them.”

K.D. Uncle - “Ahan? That’s something to worry about. We all think that only uneducated people and people from the rural areas, poor men corrupt the society but we fall prey to such beliefs... even people from good backgrounds follow stuff like child marriage. You have a live example in front of your eyes.”

 “So you mean education is no way to civilize people who pursue the social evils?” asks Zahir in a serious tone.

K.D. Uncle- “I will say, it is a way but it is not the only way. You can say education is not the silver bullet you are looking for to fight this abhorrent custom of child marriage. You have to make people understand that it is inappropriate through co-operation of societies, broader policies and awareness. You can’t reach the entire population of thousands of people. But you can certainly contribute your bit.”

Abhijeet lifted up his head and picked a glass of water. He agreed with K.D. Uncle’s words. Zahir stared at the picture of Fatima on his screen. How innocent and young she looked with her eyes down… looking at the floor, no smile on her face… with a sigh he closed the screen down.


#Ester Demitasse

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Cafe Conversations II

Cafe Conversations
Sunday, 11.00 am

Zahir walked in the cafe to find an evidently miffed Abhijeet gorging on a walnut brownie. He high-fived him and took a seat across the table.
Zahir – “What is it? You sounded urgent!”

Abhijeet – “I won’t say it is urgent, but I am terribly annoyed!”

Zahir gave him a questioning look, asking him to continue. Abhijeet continued in an irritated tone, “You know about my bhabhi, right? She hasn’t been able to conceive for so long, and even the doctors have given up on her case now. She has been going through so much mental affliction already, and now my parents want to take her to a tantrik claiming that religious offerings and some rituals might have an answer to it!”

Zahir – “That is alright, dude! Let them at least try. There is no harm in that, right?”

Abhijeet – “Yeah, right! So you think the tantrik will send her some golden sperm attached in an e-mail, and she will download it into her!”

Zahir laughed as Abhijeet took another bite from his brownie. “And beat this; they want me to accompany them because they want the tantrik to prophesize about my future and suggest some kind of a havan or something!”

Zahir – “Abhijeet, you are just blatantly antagonizing them! Why don’t you just accompany them?”

Abhijeet – “You don’t understand, Zahir! They force their beliefs on me. Why can’t I just live without following any religion? Why do I have to make friends with the concept of an imaginary power up there? What is with the dogmatism?”

Zahir – “Since ages dogmatism has lead to conflict. We are living in a country where we are supposed to inherit religion from our previous generations. We do not have a choice!”

Abhijeet – “I want to make a choice on my own! If educated families like yours’ and mine harbour such blind faith and fanaticism in such self-proclaimed babas, tantriksand god-men, then I fear that the future of our nation is in serious peril!”

Zahir – “This faith runs down too deep in their upbringing, Abhijeet. You can’t change it. The most corrupt and immoral people decide to do an offering in a place of worship and believe that their sins have been forgiven. You see my point, right? Religion provides solace to wrong-doers in the perfect sense. It makes them lose their own perspective, imbibes fear in them, and by targeting the weak-hearted, it bring them into believing that they have been forgiven or they are now on the right path! That is how the whole business of religion works.”

Abhijeet – “But isn’t it like swapping from one erroneous thinking to other? I mean, looking at my parents today, I feel like religion has turned them into sheep by eroding their intellect.”

“Not just sheep, but sheep that has a lot of money to offer!” chuckled Zahir.

Abhijeet  gave him a straight-face. “I mean.. Why can’t we stop being such mindless minions? Why can’t we teach our children to worship hard work and believe in their own self?”

Zahir – “That would be an idealistic situation, buddy and trust me; we are far away from realism as of now!”

Abhijeet – “If I believe in a supreme power of God for once, I surely do not want a corrupted third party medium called ‘religion’ to help me communicate with my God.”

Zahir nodded, agreeing sadly. Abhijeet’s phone beeped. It was a text message from his mom. It read, “The hard work of the doctors paid off. The London doc says something can be done! Thank God!:)"



#Kava Brownsworth

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Cafe Conversations I

Cafe Conversations
Monday, 6.30 pm

K.D. Uncle was taking another order in the café when he heard that women shout out loud, “Are you not trying to understand what I am saying? She is a Manglik, Do you even know what that means?”

K.D. Uncle gave her a look to shush her down. She apologized with a slight tilt of head. She probably realized that everyone in the café was eyeing her and therefore she lowered her tone and started talking again, “Look beta, I understand that you really like her and she is a nice girl but…”
The guy who was quiet all this while interrupted her before she could finish, “But what Mom? Are you still stuck up with all of this? How does it matter? I mean.. It is none of her fault if some strange astrology believes that I will die if we get married. She is no murderer. How can you even believe anything like that!”

“Don’t talk like that to me Anuj. You know what they say, right? It can have negative consequences; create quarrels and other bigger problems between the two of you. Marriage is no game. Your aunt Shubra’s marriage… Don’t you remember? Her husband died five days after the wedding and that girl, who lived in the neighborhood, Riya or Reeta whatever her name was, she left her husband’s place and the entire family was broken. And that…”

“Will you stop telling me such stories, for once? I don’t care Mom..” said Anuj while the waiter placed a cup of coffee on his table. He waited for the waiter to leave for he obviously didn’t want to be embarrassed further. “I don’t care Mom.. I really don’t care and I don’t wanna know about any aunt or any Seeta, Geeta, Reeta. I expect you to understand. You wanted me to get married and when I told you about Nishi, you were so happy about it. Everyone was happy that I finally made a right choice. Till last week she was a perfect daughter-in-law for you, everything was so great and what now? Suddenly you people are worried that she may kill me or spoil the family? Only because a pandit told you so?”

“I am your mother Anuj. I am concerned about you and so is your father. We don’t want our son to face any curse…”

“CURSE!?” shouted a frustrated Anuj and then looked around to see that everyone in the café was staring at them but this time he didn’t care. “Curse! Mom Seriously? That’s what you call it? You talk like someone I don’t know. Why is it such a big deal Mom? I really love that girl”

“Because beta…” started the mother and was interrupted with a sudden phone call. She excused herself for a minute and walked out of the café. After having a two minute conversation she returned to the table with a big smile.

“What is it?” asked Anuj with a straight face.

Pandit ji called up. He said there was some misunderstanding it is not Nishi who is Manglik, it is you”, replied the Mother still holding on to that big smile. “And that means you can get married to Nishi. Oh! She is such a lovely girl with a pretty face. I always knew you were perfect for each other. I am so proud of your choice Anuj. I just can’t wait to tell your father.” She got up from her seat and was preparing to leave.

“Wouldn’t that be a problem Mom? Me being a Manglik? That won’t have negative consequences; create quarrels and other bigger problems between the two of us?” questioned a confused Anuj.

“Well, you don’t have to worry about that. It won’t be much of a problem. I trust my upbringing and she won’t die if you get married to her.. you are such a cute kid, you can create no harm!” said the Mother as she caressed her son’s hair. “I will call Shubra and give her the news..” She dialed a number and walked out of the café.

Anuj followed with his face half drooped down.



#Ester Demitasse

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