Going back in time
Since when is mixing coffee, food and leisure with work acceptable? My mum's baffled with this idea and is recovering from the idea of a bookstore-cafe.
“Today’s workplace,” I texted mum, sending her this picture.
“Is this your library?” she asked, referring to my library membership in Geneva.
“No. This is a cafe.”
“Cafe? Why are there so many books?”
“Well, it is a bookstore/cafe.”
“Ohh, work with coffee?”
****
Until a few minutes ago, I hadn’t realised the evolution of what cafes meant. For someone who was born and raised in a remote village in Kerala (India), like my parents, ‘cafe’ meant a place to grab a quick bite and gulp down the hottest possible cup of coffee. It is never chai. It is always coffee. They still are fans of the old school Indian coffee house which, till date, serves only food (delicious stuff) and hot beverages. The idea of mixing food/beverages with anything else is alien for them. Mixing food and hot drinks with work at a cafe is nothing short of a scandal.
I am not sure when this transition happened: the one in which our generation embraced mixing them all. Food, drinks, entertainment, all of it come with a dash of (doing) work. It does facilitate getting away from a toxic work environment, no doubt. But doesn’t it also prevent us from enjoying the setting we are in, because we are plugged into professional commitments?
I still fondly remember us - parents, my brother and I - searching earnestly for the nearest Indian Coffee House during our annual ‘vacation’ (read: pilgrimage) trips to grab a bite. It didn’t matter how tired we were. Even if we were as fresh as a bunch of freshly plucked coriander leaves, the moment our eyes spotted an Indian Coffee House, a coffee-break was justified.
More mysterious is the menu at these places.
No two ICH’s that I have been to have ever had the same set menu. Granted it could be due to the different times of the day that my visits happened, but still. In hindsight, I think the mystery of “what awaits us in that ‘Specials’ board” is what kept bringing my family back to those famed benches of ICHs. In an era without smartphones, walking into a coffeehouse without knowing the menu was the norm. It is unthinkable for me now.
I also think the costumes that the waiters wore at ICHs made my parents feel quite important. The all-white suits with the red and golden sash’s and the turban with a red fan perched on it, it was THE ensemble. Watching them list the days menu at the speed of a rapper is an experience in itself. The ritual is alive in many small restaurants in Tamil Nadu and Kerala even today.
Well, the point of this is just to place on record that I relish those days occasionally. The days without smartphones, internet and the hustle-culture. Internet has surely made my life way easier. But there is still a charm in going back in time, where the only crevasses I could get lost in were either books or my own thoughts. And I chose one definitely more frequently than the other. There are no prizes for guessing which one.
M.