black is the granite
strong is the coffee
light weight the frothy bubbles
sad is the story
this is the first coffee mug i bought when shifting to mumbai after getting hostel accomodation there ....it was August 1995 and i had just joined work ...went home for Onam that year and went shopping for essentials to carry with me to mumbai and this mug i bought in Tulsi Baug ...a shopping area for steel products and all kinds of household items ....i like steel better than ceramic as one it does not break and two it lasts Forever
and off i went back to mumbai to work for a minimum of two years for the sake of a good start in my CV ... the kids father had left for assam and i wanted to live away from home to be able to write and recieve letters and be able to talk via the phone with him ....everything was being done to keep a long distant relationship alive
what life is preparing us for is never clear nor do we Ever see or know how the rest of india lives ....despite the kids father getting a job with an economic journal in mumbai ...i told him his family would be wild with me if he stayed back here and specially since his father was a widower and liked the kids father the most .... i thought it would be best if he went back to assam ...
the risk was the relationship ending ....and the Worst Part ...i had Zero Clue as to what life in assam and tea is All About ...
i was in a 7 seater room initially ....5 engineers from Tamil Nadu, me and a Mallu lab techncian ....the mallu girl was a very innocent and friendly person .....however mallus stare ....early morning on my second day in the hostel and first day of travelling to college from the hostel ...i went to the bathroom and finished and went to the room in my blouse and petticoat with a cover on top of my blouse and found the mallu girl watching me ....it was unnerving to see her stare ..... Mallus can stare the most in all of India ok
then i opened both the doors of my cupboard and stood in between them and drapped my sari ....it was irritating and time consuming ... and i went down to have breakfast at 6.50am ....it was just being made ....big fat medu vadas ....meaning big fritters made of black lentil ....and i Groaned
if took one bite of it ...i would Not be able to speak for a week ...
went running to the bus stop on an empty stomach ....and compared to buses in Pune where no one looks at me and no one tries to get Fresh ....mumbai buses were Irritating ....once or twice i remember getting down from a bus and feeling sick to the point of wanting to Puke
finally i came up with a theory that men in Kerala and mumbai are the same and rather horny ...the bus travelling kind at least ....sic to the core
ate at the college staff room kitchen from a kaka there and it became my one good meal of the day ....only problem was that ....i could get my first meal only after the first lecture ....ie after 8.20am ...at 7.30am no food .....and i always feel the B.Com students in Maharashtra have the worst timetable ...actually it is so as many of them do their Chartered Accountancy along with graduation and can do their Articleship peacefully after 11.30 am when college is over for the day
reached back to the hostel and went down with a coupon for food ...got to know that if i wanted lunch ...i should have to leave a tiffin box at breakfast time ....i was hungry and upset and did not have the will to go out and eat Alone ...went back up and had snacks ....took a nap and then hand washed quite a bit of clothes ....
then took this cup and went down to get coffee ....the kitchen girls were giggling at how i did not know the system and i too laughed about it
now anger, hunger and wallowing in self pity is a lethal combination for things to go Wrong ....
and as if on cue on my 3rd step i tripped and dropped hot boiling coffee on my left chest ....went running down to the cafeteria and poured ice cold water on myself and soooooo wanted to cry ....took antoher cup of coffe and went back up to the room ...ate biscuits and applied a calamine lotion where my skin had turned a raw red and swollen ...
thought about what i was doing and when things would turn …..
that night i told my roomamtes about my brush in with a burn... and they Immediately suggested a Kovil trip ....all those engineers were such staunch temple goers and i was their interpreter and guide in mumbai ...
i would go to all the tamil kovils in chembur but i put my foot down about going to mahalaxmi on a sunday ....when i had prep to do and i was not free at home like those engineers were ...
practically every evening they would go out .....one girl was engaged and she had the Most Desparate urge to roam around ....
as we women know what our Lot in Life becomes once we get married ...the jail term starts and all movement Questioned and counter questioned and debated and then we get to step outside the house .... even if we are breadwinners too ...we have our movements outside the house curtailed... life is very different
my cup i used all through my mumbai stay and then i used it in pune and then i carried it to assam and then it went to tamil nadu and then back to assam and from there to pune and then to bahrain and back from bahrain ...back again in 2017 and finally after soooooooooooo many travels it is back in Pune ....
my cup and me still going strong as ever
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