Revolution over a cup of Coffee

Picture Courtesy - Jyothy Karat

This blog has got a nostalgic past and yummy present and a thoughtful future. The common ingredient in all these time frames is a hot cup of coffee. I, imagine myself as a boy with a heavy bag at the gates of my school waiting for dad to come and take me home. Not that everyday he is used to come to pick me up but on certain days and he made those days all the more special by taking me to the nearest Indian Coffee House. For those of you whom don’t what is that, I will cough up some words. It is a restaurant to begin with and it is run by a co-operative employees union which has got strong Communist routes. Anyway the food they serve is not Marxist in taste or appearance. Indian coffee house serves you the best samosas, cutlets, and off course delicious coffee. They have branches all over Kerala and I was surprised to see one here in Muscat too. Long live – Indian Coffee Houses. Going back to that day when my dad mixed coffee with love and served me, I felt hungrier and used to try different dishes from the coffee house. Obviously, the coffee house jaunts always ended with a hot cup of coffee.

These days, coffee has become more popular. Commercialization has taken this common drink of the common man to glassed houses and polished seats. Café Coffee day, Quikwy’s, Starbucks, Costa, Barrista you got exciting names everywhere. With captions like – ‘A lot can happen over a cup of coffee’, these new coffee vendors invite customers and make things happen over a cup of coffee. As a student in Loyola, I was excited to watch the inside activities at Quikwy’s, where they had a bell installed so that the satisfied customers can ring it. Most of them, they did that irrespective of how the coffee tasted. Only once I had the opportunity to enter that ‘coffee pub’ and but not to drink coffee but to discuss my failed international teaching opportunity. Incidentally that offer was from Colombia which is famous for its coffee rich countryside. I have seen boys and girls huddled together over a cup of coffee discussing ‘serious’ issues like – Why you love me? , What is love? , and how to put an end to this love affair?

In the days to come I foresee a great demand for this drink, life is becoming difficult and the best way to ‘cool’ our heels is to drink a ‘hot’ cup of coffee and talk to either yourself or a trusted friend. I am sure that it will make a hell lot of difference. There are proof for this in almost cultures where coffee is a national drink. Italy, Mexico, Ireland, there have been social changes and coffee acted as a catalyst. So if we desire for a change within ourselves and the world in general, the best thing to do is to sit across a coffee table and simply talk. Coffee can, indeed be a life savior.

Barrack Obama and Me

The US presidential elections this time was more popular than the Olympics games. Thanks to the strong media support the racial clout that surrounded it. Me too was drawn into this political whirlpool knowingly or unknowingly. I am happy to recollect that when I was working in Tumkur, near Bangalore in the media department of SSIT, I used to have this intense and extensive discussion with my director Dr Suchetana Swaroop. He supported the republicans and I supported Obama. I did the same not because of any political connection as such. It was because I liked Obama right from the day one I saw him in the paper as the US presidential candidate. He face grabbed my attention and it was devotion and respect at the first sight. There was something special on that face. Now, if try to define what exactly is on his face, the only word that I can think about is the word – FOCUS. It looks as if he knows where he is going. If the caption for his campaigning was something fascinating. Change – What we can believe in. In these present days when, the whole world is burning I found Obama a perfect person standing tall with some hope. I have given some quotes by Obama here, that makes my eulogy for him complete.
Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.
Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.
This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands.
We have real enemies in the world. These enemies must be found. They must be pursued and they must be defeated.
You know, my faith is one that admits some doubt.