Coffee Decoction Friends

"Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow.

Don't walk behind me, I may not lead.

Walk beside me and be my friend." - Albert Camus

I just cannot imagine a life without friends. We all start developing friends when we are tiny toddlers. Man is a social animal and is constantly on the lookout for companionship. We have all sorts of friends. We make friends in the neighborhood – chaddi dost, during our school and college days, at our work place, playing fields and when we travel and it goes on. Our journey on earth is like a river flow. It starts as a tiny drop somewhere and charts its own course and in the end reaches the sea and totally disappears. The river is not alone - along the way we make friends – like tributaries big and small they join us in the journey - all the time impacting our character and personality. Over a period of time, part of our body, mind and soul is shared by our friends. As we retire and settle down, we are finally left with a handful of good friends – like well percolated Coffee Decoction - with whom you wish to spend the rest of your life making merry.
All through my life I have been blessed with good friends and continue to have them – they help, criticize, bring you down to earth, cut you down to size and encourage you when you are down and out – they are capable of many things – most importantly they act as a security blanket – especially today. There is very little one can do in life and enjoy without friends.

So in Bangalore we make it a point to meet regularly in RSI, Golf course and each other houses once a month. We also go on short trips and picnics to indulge in a bit of bonhomie and elbow bending. Whenever outstation friends come to Bangalore we make it a point to meet up and enjoy an evening together.

It was our turn to host a get-together on 04 Sep 2010. We had the regular turn out - Sunder and Saroja, Prassu and Preet, Fali and Olive, KM and Sudhi, Pondi and Ragini, Rags and Meera. I had also invited Dore and Lalitha to join us.

Click on the photographs to view bigger image

Being teacher’s day some of the guests had ‘Teachers’ and others preferred G and B with a

dash of L. There was light hearted banter with KM, Prassu and Rags in the lead. Ragini says “I have never laughed so much and all this really makes me feel young”. One can party freely in the company of coffee decoction friends and let hair down without having to worry what others feel.

There was some serious discussion on ‘Right to Education’ act and KM felt we had little authority or experience to speak on education. The best part of the party is nobody remembers anything the next morning.

After a lot of Teaching, Blending and Pipering we all moved to the dining table.
Dinner was served and everyone seemed to enjoy the fare very much. There were many items on the menu but Bisi Bele Bath _BBB stood out. It is common in the Naval Mess to see PPK in the end of the menu card – meaning Papad, Pickle and Kuchumber. I am also reminded of Rags narration about people from NE of Bangalore – A hungry young boy comes home and asks his mother “what’s for lunch” the mother says “ B and B” the boy asks “what’s that” mother says “ Brinjal and Buggerall son”. BBB was prepared by the LOH and Meera was extra cautious and correctly complimented Jai and not me. Jai was ecstatic to be receiving compliments after a long time for her culinary effort and expertise. Next day Ragini rang up to find out the recipe for Methi sabji and Jai was truly pleased.

We all finally settled down to rest our feet and enjoy a bit of dessert. But the poor hand, had no rest, it had to firmly grip a spot of Eau-de-vie. As mid night approached we all bid good bye and decided to meet in KM and Sudhis house on 17 Oct 2010.

Until then cheers.