On one of those boring days, I happened to get a mail from Manoj asking me what is the ``coffee'' that we used to have in India. He was curious to know if it was coffee arabica or robusta. Being a traditionalist, he does not like the hi-fi brands that we poor NRIs get here...be it be a Colombian or a Jamaican.
The discussions went on and on...about different types of coffee and the different ways of making it etc etc. As common with most of the ``intellectuals'', the discussion even went to the extend that the coffee arabica has 44 chromosomes while coffee robusta has only 22...even then it seemed to me coffee robusta is more robust than coffee arabica. What about the theory of evolution?
Whatever it is, a dull day has been rejuvenated by our little discussion on coffee. Later, while laying back in my chair, I just closed my eyess...it smelled coffee. Alas! It didn't have the smell of cappuccino or coffee-latte. It had a nostalgic odour. The aroma that I got was that of the coffee I used to drink at one of my friends house (a Tamil Brahmin), made by his mother. She used to give it in a small duvra tumbler. Strong coffee...
The next moment took me to the Indian Coffee House. Its age-old chairs and typical waiters...let it be at Kottayam or Trivandrum or at Bangalore. ICH keeps its identity. Their miniature steel glasses and duvras...a mixed crowd that you can never experience anywhere else (in the world? )...Heated discussion of older generation about the current scenarios... with a cup (a white one) of coffee...busy waiters taking the masala dosas, with a bit fluidy masala inside, here and there.
Then it took me to the kattan cappy (black coffee) that my mother used to make at home. I seldom remember if the "kattan" was a result of monthly budget handling or we liked it having that way. It was rather unpolished...It often had grains at the bottom of the glass, even after her filtration through a sieve (I, for quite sometime, used to believe that the filter coffee is so called because one filters it once the coffee is made!). I remember the days at which I realized that the "actual" filter coffee is the one that I used to have at my friends house and one needs a coffee filter to make such a coffee. I wanted to get one and have the best coffee. But the priority was set to many other stuffs and we never had a filter at home. I wonder if it means that we lost some delicate flavours...
Later on, coffee was always a companion during many of the heated discussions at IISc coffee board. The strong, bitter coffee of coffee board somehow gave the impression of having something great. Then the days of coffee-days and bristos and all...Cappuccino...caffee latte...etc. drained my pocket now and then. Duvras and stell glasses gave its way to paper glasses and take-outs...I started having coffee through a straw...
Now, where am I? ...it is starbucks...brazilian....mexican...I do not know what all. It takes hours to decide what coffee should I buy. Heavily priced coffees obviously became the better ones...I wonder...are they the better ones for me? A moment with a closed eye at a laid back position took me to my friends house's varanda where a duvra of hot coffee was waiting for me along with some local snaks...or may be a piece of ada.