Today I was waiting for a friend at CCD. This was the first time I was alone at this place. Usually when you are with a group of friends somehow you become oblivious to others.. So, here I was sitting all alone. In the beginning I felt really awkward, it reminded me of my days in Nerul, and how much I dreaded eating at restaurants alone.
Anyway, one positive thing about the whole situation was it gave me a chance to observe people.
It was 4:30 in the afternoon, and a gang of young college girls rolled in just about when I came. Probably in FY or SY, they were seated right behind me, and giggled away, right from the moment they came in. Although I coudnt see them, they seemed to be imitating some Prof, then went into long discussion of what to order and finally started to gossip!! In the middle I could hear them giggling at something or the other.. Earlier what seemed amusing, gradually became boring, even a tad bit irritatingтАж┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а But isnt this how I behave even today, when IтАЩm with my girlfriends..I thought, and smiledтАж I missed them soo much and thought as to how we never seem to catch up lately..
Yet the memory of the good times bought a smile to my face.. oops..stop smiling..I told myself….People will think you are mad..smiling away at yourself like that!
Right next to me, I had noticed was a Marathi TV actor, wearing glares inside the cafe. In Parle one gets to see many such charactersтАж. He seemed to be engrossed with another guy, an older one though, probably discussing a script. BTW, heтАЩs not as good looking a guy as he looks on screen. He even had a paunchтАжhidden discreetly on tv using smart photographyтАжMy interest in him weaned as quickly as the serial in which he was castтАж..
тАЬNot baaaad!!тАЭ I heard a voice loud enough and instinctively turned towards the door.. Oh ya..really not bad.. A girl in a miniskirt just walked in with a guy. I checked out the girl..(!!!) who settled in the centre of the caf├йтАжwhile her companion went to place an orderтАж. A quick glance at the whole place and ya..just as I had guessed, all eyes were on HERтАжI was reminded of a little game, me and my friends used to play in Aurangabad. First we would rate a guy on his looks and then wait for him to open his mouth. Usually the scoreboard would go likeтАж
LOOKS : тАЬ8тАжno I guess 9тАж.тАЭ┬а
//MOUTH OPEN/┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а
тАЬoh no! 3!!тАЭ┬а ┬аЁЯШЙ┬а ┬аЁЯШЙ┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а
┬аI rated her a 8 ┬╜ on her looksтАж As soon as they had settled, the girl started to cry..the guy seemed to be shouting. The more the girl cried, the more the guy got angryтАжFinally he walked out leaving the poor girl alone. I thought of all the times I had wasted my wishes (those precious eyelids which always seem to fall when you have really nothing to ask for) on asking God to make me more beautiful. …But beauty they sayтАжcomes at a virtueтАж
Far away in the corner were a couple, who had ordered one coffee amongst themselvesтАжHand in hand they spoke little and kept smiling at each other..probably making some plans for the future..
тАЬMaam would you like to place the order..тАЭ Somebody interrupted my plans for them. ЁЯШЙ
тАЬIm actually waiting for somebodyтАЭ I cringedтАж Im not sure why, but I hate it when I have to face such situationsтАж.┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а I vowed never to come early again! ЁЯШЙ
тАЬOk. maam..тАЭ
And then for the first time I noticed the waiter. A young guyтАжdefinitely a maharahtrianтАжin the trade mark red clothes and black cap of CCD. I wondered how his life must beтАж.working at CCD. Regularly tending to people of all kinds..Mostly youngsters coz the old (and Wise!!) definitely do not spend 200 bucks on shitty caffeineтАж┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а┬а And even though there were 4 employees at the counter, he seemed to be the only one to cater to people.. He went on swiftly from one table to another, waiting patiently for the couple who couldnтАЩt decide on which coffee to take, or juggling the multiple orders (and some changes too!!!) of the gang of girlsтАжServing the distraught girl her coffee and the tough guys theirsтАж
He must be seeing so much of all of this everyday! And yet he went about as dispassionately as ever from table to tableтАжserving different concoctions of the same thing..
My memories of a coffee shop include laughing, gossiping, shouting (till the time the waiter asked us politely to leave!)тАжcelebrating.. making important decisionsтАжmaking plansтАжchanging plans..even crying and now thisтАж..
Well indeed, a lot can happen over coffeeтАж
Cheers!
Abha Deshkar
06/04/2011
8 comments
i do a lot of this observation stuff too!..
I liked the MOUTH OPEN part ЁЯША
tooo cute ЁЯША
Like this…….
lovely “AS ALWAYS”.. KEEP IT UP ЁЯЩВ
just read ur article in today’s DNA.. the only catch being that i read it over a cup of garma garam chai… ЁЯШЙ i enjoyed reading it, especially the way u have described the CCD environment, it felt like i was actually there.. and also the way u have given an insight into the personalities of the various ppl with beautiful simplicity is what i liked the most.. keep going.. god bless…
Hey gr8 article.. lyked dis better than d DNA article ЁЯЩВ dis somehow captures d whole scene beautifully wid all d details perfectly in place ЁЯЩВ
YES! a lot does happen over coffee! I have been through multiple sessions in quick succession with my girl pals, guy friends, school group, college group… Good article, nice read!
thanku anand.. its becoz of ur comment that i got to know that my article was in d newspaper that day….
thanks again! keep reading ЁЯЩВ