Coffee House Conversations...

I am an ardent F.R.I.E.N.D.S. follower... (Yes, I still watch at least 2 episodes per day and I never seem to get bored of it... :) and when I first started watching it I was most fascinated by ‘The Coffee House’... I loved the idea of a place where you could just hang out with friends and have coffee... (I love my daily cuppa too...)..Of course Chandler & the gang perpetually lived there and I’m sure if it were India, they would have been ‘politely’ kicked out...Anyway, this post isn’t about F.R.I.E.N.D.S. (Really?!) but it is about (no points for guessing...) Coffee Houses..! :)

Today wherever you go you will stumble upon a CCD, a Barista or one of the many scores of coffee shops that have mushroomed up around our cities...And truly, a coffee shop is a world in its own.. It has an atmosphere of its own... and of course coffee and its variants provide a perfect excuse to increase our craving for social interaction.

A coffee shop is considered the perfect location for a first date...Not too intimate but cosy enough... It is a great place for catching up with friends... Several business meetings are also arranged at coffee shops and even if you are all by yourself you can have a nice time by just sitting and reading the magazines kept there or surf the internet on your laptop...

There have been several instances when I have just happened to go to a coffee shop to observe human behaviour... As clusters of social interaction, they provide a great setting to recognise the varying degrees of relationships among young people...and sometimes the things you overhear can be very entertaining...;)

However, recently I came across something that bought a smile to my face... Something I don’t see too often...As I passed by the entrance of a certain coffee shop in the neighbourhood, I saw this old couple, easily around 65+...They were the only ‘oldies’ in the entire place which was bustling with raucous youngsters, some of them even throwing obvious dirty ‘What – are –YOU– doing- here?’ looks at the old couple...But they just seemed to be oblivious to all the commotion around them..They were just happy in each others company and they seemed to be having the time of their lives laughing and joking. At that moment, they seemed younger than anybody else in the entire place with their twinkling eyes and smiling faces...I stopped there for a moment and smiled at one of the most beautiful moments I had come across at a coffee shop...

Thats when I realised that the coffee shop culture has well and truly caught on with all ages and is here to stay...

So how would you like your coffee?

Things that make you go Hmmm...

I am sure most of you at some point of time have read e-mails containing the following...But everytime i read some of them I really do wonder WHY?...Here are some of the best ones I have come across..

1. If you have your finger touching a rear-view mirror that says 'Objects in mirror are closer than they appear' how is that possible?

2. Why do fat chance and slim chance mean the same thing?

3. Why are they called 'stands' when they are made for sitting?

4. Why call it 'take a dump' when you leave something behind?

5. Why do sleeping pills have warning labels that state 'Caution: May Cause Drowsiness'?

6. How do 'Do not walk on the grass' signs get there?

7. Why do tourists go to the tops of tall buildings and then put money into telescopes so they can see things on the ground close-up?

8. Why is it that you must wait until night to call it a day?

9. If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?

10. If you mated a bulldog and a shitzu, would the new breed be called bullshit?

11. Why is it that if someone yells "duck" they are helping you, but if they yell "chicken" they are insulting you?

12. What happens if you put this side face down while popping microwave popcorn?

13. Why do some strings of Christmas lights have warning tags that read 'For indoor or outdoor use only'? Where else could you possibly use it?

14. If someone says “the best just got better”, would you ever buy their product? Aren’t things always good, better, or best?

15. At a movie theatre which arm rest is yours?

16. If laughter is the best medicine, why do people say they died laughing?

17. When you hear someone say 'Don't believe everything you hear', would you believe them?

18. What is the meaning of the word 'the'?

19. Why is yawning contagious?

20. Why is it that the most important things in life aren't things?

21. Why doesn't Tarzan have a beard?

22. Why do people use the phrase ‘Don’t piss me off’ when they are angry?

23. Why is it called research when looking for something new?

24. How come the snoring never wakes up the snorer?

And finally..

25. If there are 365 days in a year and there are 52 weeks consisting of 7 days each which equals 364 days. Where does that extra day go? (Wow,thats a thinker?!)

PS: I love number 10! :)

Its High Time..

"Don’t count every hour in the day, make every hour in the day count."

Two situations arise which make you realise how fast time flies. Either you are too busy caught up in your own life or sometimes you don't do anything and guess what you haven't been doing 'anything' for several months!

In both cases you can just feel time slipping through your own hands. Its always something like ‘I am too busy today, I will meet him over the weekend.’ or ‘I will take guitar classes after I am done with my entrance exams’. And guess what? Before you know it a week has passed by...then a month and then a whole year! And suddenly it feels like that particular incident took place in another lifetime! Or you realise that you haven’t accomplished the things that you wanted to in the time frame set by you.

But before you think I am preaching, let me tell you that I too have been busy (lol) doing nothing for the past many months and before doing nothing I too was ‘caught up’ in my so called busy life. So this is experience speaking.

'I don't have time yaar'. How often have we heard this phrase being used? But think about it. Since time immemorial a day has consisted of 24 hours. Isn’t it ironical that today with all the conveniences around us that are designed save time we still complain that we don't have enough of it! Today our lives revolve around fast food outlets, frozen dinners that can be prepared in 5 minutes, laptops and blackberrys that help us communicate on the go and a zillion other gizmos.

But can you remember when you last visited an old friend/relative and had a heart-to-heart with them? Can you recall the last time when you laughed till tears came out of your eyes? When was the last time you spent an entire day at home with your family playing board games or flipping through old photo albums and baking cookies? Do you remember what you did in your free time before everyone bought a computer or about the last time you went for a picnic in the countryside and the drive itself gave you a ‘natural’ high?

I am sure for most of us the answers to these questions would be No, only to go on to defend ourselves by saying its okay because I was too busy. Hello... Too busy doing what??? Yes, most of us have college or jobs that can take up anywhere up to 12 hours in a day, 5-6 days a week and we need at least 7 hours of sleep to rest our tired brain cells. That still leaves us with 5 hours in a day and Sundays. Which if you think about still leaves us plenty of time to do a lot of things because you aren’t going to do everything everyday or every week. It just requires a little effort, a little perseverance and ability to imagine yourself being happy and content because doing these things is definitely going to make you a happy individual.

Coming to the second aspect of doing nothing and realising that time has passed you by. Well, I recently discovered there is a solution for that too! I graduated college last year and right now I am in between things as I want to pursue my higher studies. I am not working right now and that really leaves me with trust me A LOT of free time which I didn’t know how to use constructively. But as they say that you are only as bored as you tell yourself you are. There are tons of things to do when you are free apart from watching re-runs of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. This is the best time to take up a hobby that you were interested in but you didn’t have the time for. You could do a couple of short term courses, learn a new language, dabble in film-making, learn to cook an exotic meal or join an NGO and donate some of your free time to a cause that interests you. It depends upon you! This is the time to introspect, discover your passion and then follow it. Because tomorrow, you may go back to being ‘too caught up in your life’ to do any of these things.

Hmmmm..Sounds difficult? Well it is not that difficult once you try to open up your mind to any kind of experience you can slowly try and become a self-motivated individual. I am trying it out and I’m loving it! :)