Baesh Baesh – I

Posted by Gans on December 23, 2008 · 7 Comments 

She looked at him in exasperation as they mulled over the problem they had. The more they thought of it, the more morose they became. They had tried all possible suggested solutions, but none was useful. Suffice to say that, they were at their wit’s end.

Oops, but sorry for plonking you in the middle of their predicament immediately. To get to this point, we need to rewind some years back, 9 years to be precise. So get your tortoise coils ready. 🙂

9 years back….

The train started chugging out of the platform even as Suppini’s (Subramanian) mom kept fussing over him. He was going to study at the Engineering college, Guindy, which would later be known as Anna University. It was one of the most prestigious institutes in India, and his parents left no stone unturned in tom tomming it to anybody who would listen. “Its all in the coffee”, his mom declared. “Nammaathu filter coffee naa summaavaa (something akin to “What else would you get with our home’s filter coffee”)” were the words she said. The Rajamanis were proud about the fact that none who entered their house exited without saying “Baesh Baesh” after drinking coffee. As the train started with her most precious wealth on board, she shouted, “Dont forget your daily coffee…. and drink coffee before you start studying”. He nodded. It wasn’t difficult. He LOVED coffee.

Suppini had a bad time in the college initially. He was teased as “thayir saadham” and a “cross belt”. But he wasnt fazed by it. Like a typical nerd, he promised that he would show them who he was, in the exams (Chamathu paiyyan didnt know that that would lead to a lot more taunts) and for that he needed a lot of good coffee. And there, he hit a snag. After 17 years of good, home filter coffee, he found the hostel coffee to be bad. His parents were also aghast on hearing this. “Will you be able to get the university rank” was all his mom had to offer.

He did find a good restaurant which served filter coffee, and he started frequenting the hotel a lot. The coffee was pretty ok, though not a patch on his home coffee. A year passed and one day, as he reminisced about the home coffee he had a week back, while he was having his hotel coffee, he saw her. Sita. She was in the electrical department. They knew each other as they both were in the cultural department. They did not speak a lot though. He was a shy person. She was lucky though. She was a localite and got to drink coffee at her place itself. She waved at him and as he waved back, he thought he could use some company. As luck would have it, she came to the table he was seated in.

“So you come here regularly to have coffee? I heard that the coffee they serve at the hostel is really bad”, she asked him. A little tongue tied at first, he nodded and managed to gargle out something. “The coffee, here is ok, but aathu coffee poala varala”. “So why dont you come to my place? Filter coffee is a big enough prize, isnt it?” and she laughed. And there, he was lost. He nodded and she smiled and started to leave. “Aanaa address?”, he blurted out. She smiled and scribbled the address on a piece of paper and gave it to him.

                                                                                                                                           (To be continued….)

Filed under Stories, Story · Tagged with coffee is the Beshtu, Crush, part by part story, Story