Quest for Cafe

I was just so sad at the unfriendly and unhelpful staff at most of the cafes I went to in my locality. The Café Coffee Day in Kandivali Lokhandwala had staff who blasted off their favourite hindi soap operas the entire time with no regard that I was working. (Finally, it shut down!)

The Café Coffee Day at Thakur Village Kandivali had no working power sockets to connect my laptop to (pathetic!) except one that was outside in the open sun. I requested the staff there to at least switch on the fan so that I needn’t swelter so much. After 15 minutes of getting no response from them, I left the place.

I called up Justdial to get the number of any other cafes around. The first name on my sms list was ‘Green Rock Café’ at Thakur Village again. I called up the number. I didn’t want nasty surprises again.

A smart cheerful voice answered the phone. He gave me exact directions to reach the place, assured me of working power sockets and a calm atmosphere to work. I reached there in about 5 minutes and set up my place. I introduced myself to the staff as the person who just called up. They were surprised.

“Our phone is not working properly. We didn’t receive any calls from morning,” the thin little girl said.

“What? I just called. Your number ends with 14 right?”

“Nope,” she said.

‘Oh mystery solved,’ I assumed. ‘The owner must have given some other number – his own personal one,’ I thought. ‘I should give him a call. He was a nice chap.’

I called up the number again. Surprise of surprises… the café phone rang… loud and clear! The staff seemed as surprised as me!
There must be some simple explanation like call forwarding, etc. for these eerie happenings. But I choose to believe that God intervened and found me an ideal place nearby where I can sip good (yes, it’s decent!) coffee and work in peace.

He wants me to write and will try to nullify all the silly excuses that I can come up with. For, had it been one of these sleepy, non-english speaking staff who had answered my phone, I would have called it a day, gone back home and snuggled into bed with a nice book.

God, thanks for this café. You made sure that you found a place for me that makes crispy yummy garlic bread, fragrant green teas and pizzas too. Thank you.

Now, no excuses. I’m working…