There was a long period of time in my life when after office and many times before, I would drive down to this small take away coffee shop near an over the ground metro station.
There are other coffee stands nearby but the reason for me driving the distance to have coffee was divided into parts, first being the fact I love coffee, second the coffee made there was high in sugar content but somehow it had some appeal to its taste and the most important was the location.
One would think that since it was near a metro station, the place would be quite crowded. But it wasn’t, not in the day at least. There were no offices or any educational institution here. Just houses, hotels, some banquet halls, a mall, a movie hall and many restaurants so you get the idea why less people would come here in working hours.
I preferred the smaller crowd. Unlike many who have become accustomed to the large crowd of a metropolitan city, I have never quite liked it. The more space to breathe the better.
One fine day, when I went to drink coffee before going to office, I stood drinking my coffee, looking at the world passing by and was having my moment of thoughts, when my view was blocked by the smiling face of an office colleague who worked at a senior position, Mr Pramod Malkani.
“Good morning,” I smiled back
“Good morning, are you waiting for someone here? I get down at this station every day and then catch the bus,” said Mr Malkani
“I come here sometimes to have coffee before office,” I said looking at how much coffee was remaining, a little less than half
“It’s funny how I have never come across you here before”
“Yeah, it can happen when we don’t know someone familiar might pass by here”
“Right,” said Mr Malkani and then he looked at the cup of coffee in my hand and said, “We have a coffee machine in the office. You don’t like its coffee?”
“I have been having coffee here even before I joined the office, so it is a habit” I said
At this point Mr Malkani took out a box of cigarettes and took out one for himself and offered me one which I refused. I also wanted to ask him not to smoke and completely ruin my experience here, but I didn’t and he lit up the cigarette and the smoke ended everything good about the moment I was having there.
Unfortunately, the light breeze was flowing in my direction so the smoke was coming towards me.
“Yeah, I know habits,” said Mr Malkani, “I buy cigarettes from only one shop, the one near my house. I have been buying from him for years.”
I don’t know how it had any similarity to what I had said, but I just stood there. After all, what other option did I have but to bear with this unnecessary presence. I could not tell him that I had to go somewhere and leave, because we worked at the same place.
“You know,” said Mr Malkani, “take my number and whenever you decide to come here and have coffee, we can go to the office together.”
He made me save his number right then and there, while I wondered how sometimes people just barge into your life not asking for what you want and rather imposing what they want instead. I like my peaceful moments of peace a lot and this would be a problem. Even if I did not inform Mr Malkani the day I decided to have coffee, I would have to look out for whether he was coming or not and he would definitely try to see whether I was having my coffee there.
Written by Anuran Chatterji
A Moment with Coffee
Early Morning Memories 
One response to “A Moment with Coffee”
Some people have more interest in other life . Well shared
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