coffee, cheese sandwich and miles between

In the absence of anything intresting to do, I eat. I have always been a foodie and love anything that is edible.
But my all time favourite is plain cheese sandwich teamed with a cup of coffee. A good book sideways triplicates the fun.

Today morning as I sat with my favourute breakfast I was instantly transported to the coffee house in the science faculty of Delhi University. At this point let me introduce everyone to P. She was,  and still remains my best friend . In fact the word friendship took on a new meaning and dimention when I met her. She will,as is expected, feature in many of my writings. Now, when P and I were doing our M.Sc., we would often decide to travel to the university together in the morning. Those days Delhi did not boast of a metro or low floor cng buses, so the best option available to us was rickety blueline or DTC mudrikas ( buses which did a round of the ring road). P was staying quite far from where i was putting up and it used to take me the better part of an hour to reach the bus stop from where we used to continue together.

Delhi winters are quite severe, causing mist to blow out from my mouth with each breath. Inspite of this I would reach our common bus stop by 7 Am. P would join me and we would board the next mudrika that came our way. The bus journey is another story in itself which i would delve on later. Back to my coffee...

DU on winter mornings is the most romantic thing that can happen to you. Small tea stalls billowed out smoke around which urchins, students and street dogs huddled together.Rikshaw pullers moved slowly with blankets draped around them. A few early bird teachers and students like us headed towards their departments or towards tea and coffee stalls.

I and P usually ended up in the science faculty coffee house. Now coffee at this place was for 7 bucks which was higher priced than any other place nearby and cheese sandwich also cost us 20 Rs. Which was pretty steep. But the style in which it was served more then made up for it.

There was an ancient steward at this place who would be in a spotless white uniform, complete with a cap, moving around with a silver tray under his arm. He would walk up to us, politely wish us good morning and serve us. As we bit into the bread and sipped the coffee, our hearts opened up and we poured out anything and everything within. All our dreams, aspirations took shape during those mornings. Troubles dissolved and the world seemed just perfect.

As i sip my coffee , an emptiness fills me....... i hope P sitting somewhere across the world shares and feels the same emptiness which comes with a single cup of coffee and a missing friend.

I like to sit next to you.................................

" many things you do which nobody else does, thats why i like to sit next to you...." goes the jingle of a popular cellular service provider. A little girl's face lights up as she finds her friend has saved a seat for her in a huge crowd of school girls. Simple unadulterated happiness.............

I saw many such faces light up and a few turn away in dissapointment during the annual day rehersals at my school. Young girls had been chosen to play Krishna and Gopis for raas- leela. To ease our troubles, we asked the kids to select their own krishna or gopi as the case may be.

It was a tumult of emotions which passed in front of us. Friends squealed in delight as they paired up, joining hands and jumping up and down. some looked lost as they could find no one to pair up with, some turned away dissapointed as they found their friends pairing up with others.

youth is simple, pure in its expressions, we complicate our lives as we grow up. I wish i am given this chance to express my feelings in such a simple way. when no tact or diplomacy is expected. where whats in my heart is whats on my face....