Semesters meant coffee. Pulling all nighters was not easy. Surviving those few weeks was only possible by having caffeine run through your arteries. We – my family, had always been the staunchest of tea drinkers. When guests came we made that special Darjeeling tea. But never coffee. My love affair with coffee started early in college. During the very first semester. Before that, at home, staying up late studying was never an option. I was a good girl – early to bed, early to rise type. But suddenly now it seemed everyone was staying up late and getting up late. And there was no choice really, since no matter how we all tried, we ended up chatting most part of the day. So yeah, burning those midnight oils were really necessary.Coffee helped me like a charm. It was a magic concoction. A spoonful of coffee powder, some milk and sugar did wonders to my drooping eyes. I was so excited, that the very next morning I walked at least a mile to the shop outside the campus and got myself few small sachets of Nescafe.After the semesters, during the holidays, I got myself a small electric kettle with the sole purpose of making coffees. That committed I was going to be with coffee.As years passed, my small sachets of coffee graduated from small bottles to big tall ones. Milks reduced to barely few drops. Cup sizes went from small teacups to tall mugs. And slowly I started to prefer my coffee black. But even as I started to like my coffee, much to my disappointment, it wasn’t as effective as before. I needed coffee more frequently if I wanted to stay up. By the seventh semester it had started to work as a sedative! But then, which engineering student has her heart in studying for an exam by the time she is in her final year?Anyway, as yet more years passed, Nescafe still managed to remain my best friend. Helping me day after day to trudge through the ordeal – meetings, deadlines, deliveries – it was always there! But that’s for another day.So, back in college – during semester days the corridors smelled of fresh coffee as it brewed inside every room. Some borrowed my kettle while some used immersion rods to heat up water. Coffee with maggi were the ultimate comfort food one could eat. Almost all books carried the brown ring marks because we all had the annoying habit of making them the coasters underneath my cup.Love,
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Riot of Random
