Rahul Kamath, a man from the world of advertising and a newly converted lover of coffee, sat back in his chair.

Bengaluru :

When Rahul first developed an extreme love of coffee, he had not imagined even remotely where this affair would lead him. It had only been a year but this obsession had marked a sudden, clean and dramatic shift from his long-standing penchant for elaichi chai.

When his colleague Srinivasan, the accountant who sat in the cubicle next to his, commented on this change, Rahul was quick to respond, ‘It is elaichi chai that I’ve been having since my college days. How long can one keep drinking the same thick, inky stuff? Coffee, on the other hand, is so seductive and cool, man. Good coffee is like delicious, lingering sex, you know?’

Srinivasan, a nearly celibate Tamil Brahmin from Trichy [also called Tiruchi or Tiruchirappalli], did not like these casual mentions of sex in the office. However, well aware that Rahul was in an expansive mood, one where he would go on and on about assorted and inane things, Srinivasan persevered with the conversation, probably for the sake of friendship. It was only when it became quite likely that more graphic descriptions would follow to further illustrate what was already an inappropriate comparison that he thought it best to walk back to his cubicle. Shaking his head, he buried himself in the safety of his accounting ledgers where coffee and lingering sex thankfully made no appearances.

Rahul Kamath, a man from the world of advertising and a newly converted lover of coffee, sat back in his chair. He brushed back his thick black hair, stared into space and then closed his eyes. This almost always helped him think. Why did Srini go away so quickly? Rahul could never understand people who first initiated a conversation and then withdrew inexplicably. Unfortunately, there are plenty of such people in our offices these days—shallow guys with thick spectacles and a bucketload of grand degrees, most of them unable to hold a conversation for more than a few minutes. Let it go, let it go, Rahul, it is not worth the thought. Only a nice hot cup of freshly brewed black coffee was worth his time now; some lovely Americano would allow him to think and rise above the usual rut that was office civility.

Rahul took off for Red Horse Café, his favourite coffee place. It was small, cozy and warm, and just ten minutes away if one walked briskly. Just the thought of a steaming cup of Americano had geared him up for some thinking. He had read somewhere that Americano literally meant American coffee though it had actually originated in Italy. This nugget of information had intrigued him until he found an unconfirmed story suggesting that the name owed itself to American soldiers fighting in Italy during World War II. They used hot water to dilute the strong Italian espresso to produce the sort of coffee they drank at home. The Italians must have been aghast. But he doubted if anyone cared; after all Americano helped the Americans win the war.

Excerpted from An Extreme Love Of Coffee by Harish Bhat, with permission from Penguin Random House India.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Express News Service / October 30th, 2019