Paper Cup Coffees

Paper cup coffee.. Not the Starbucks or Costa Coffee.. The region (as you may say, as its just a specific area of my huge country) where I am from, we get specially brewed filter coffee, served in a special utensil called dabara set, which looks something like this.

As I did my graduation in a countryside college and stayed in a strict dormitory, part time job opportunities were zero. So we spend the entire month on a very stringent budget and hence the chances of going out to enjoy filter coffee in ‘Dabara’ was a dream.

Being a coffee lover in a tea loving society, made coffee feel like special treat. And there, I found a old soul just like me, a lover of coffee. We became fast friends and without much ado, we were joined at hip.

Both of us began our venture to find the perfect coffee in all the kiosks and cafes in our campus and came to one little kiosk where we found our perfect taste. But then, no ‘Dabara’. Just plain white paper cups.

Those chats and dreaming over paper cup coffees made us inseparable. Till that point of time, I viewed friendships as acquaintances. I could not fathom the reason for the closeness between people. I would do anything for my friends. But till I met her, I did not feel profound love and fondness for any friend of mine.

She was funny, tomboy and a real genius. We were room mates too. If I don’t wake her up in the morning, she was sure to miss her class. She couldn’t tie her own hair. She was an avid reader and a great sports enthusiast.

We spend hours late into night cooking up imaginery life situations and discussing movie plots. She used to go home every weekend and bring me new movies and books to read. She had a very lovable and naughty lab whom we called Veeru. Our days were filled with stories about Veeru and everything about anything.

I used to have very nasty temper bouts and she used to be the only one who could calm me. She is the one reason why I saw the bad side of temper. Not because she was patient to explain, she used to stare cluelessly as to why I just bursted out.

But then along the way, something happened and we drifted apart. We parted ways after college without even a single word. I missed her badly. It was almost like she took a part of my life with her. We did patch up with each other. But the sadness that the last leaves of our college life fell without us talking to each other, lingered on.

Now she is a young mother with a lovely bouncing baby boy. I wanted to be with her when she was the most alone. But I couldn’t. I wanted to be on her side when she had complications during child birth. Again, I couldn’t be there.

Yet, when I still see coffee being served in paper cups, I go back to those lovely days when we roamed the campus, laughing out loud and making crazy stories with Paper Cup Coffees in hand…