Showing posts with label classic coffee bean. Show all posts
Showing posts with label classic coffee bean. Show all posts

Mar 4, 2009

Classics Out Of Stock

Published in Big Hyderabad, May 2008

Classic, for a long time, meant boring, unexciting, unchanged with time, stuck in the past etc. Last evening’s trip to the supermarket put the word classic in perspective. Amidst all these ‘new, improved, with extra XYZ and other such add-ons, today Classic means in its original, uncorrupted form. It means fiercely resisting change to retain its virgin charm. It means sticking to its guns to keep its charm intact.
Bread, I asked the supermarket counter guy. He pointed his finger to a bread counter, neatly stacked with a wide array of breads. Spinach bread, methi bread, garlic bread, masala bread, pavbhaji bread, brown bread, health fibre bread. I asked, “But I just want bread. Not the garlic, masala, health or any other version. The regular, plain, classic bread that I used to eat as a child.” I went back without my bread.
Same with popcorn, at Numaish, the Hyderabad Industrial Exhibition at Nampally Grounds. The big, noisy stall with garish yellow bulbs welcomed me with his big, plastic smile. “Popcorn,” I asked. “Tomato, butter, masala, Chinese, kya chahiye?” he threw a barrage of choices at me. “Simple popcorn”, I said. “Woh flavour next week ata,” he said reassuringly, as though it were another flavour by itself.
At a popular restaurant in Punjagutta, I had to choose between executive thali, special thali, power thali. Where has the good old meals where I get a round plate with six little katoras and a mound of rice with crunchies gone?
At the junk food store, for a simple snack like Potato chips, I had to agonize between chilli chatka, Rajasthani Chutney, Spanish Tango, Indian pepper, American Cream and Onion, Garlic Tomato and whateverthehell that was. Do you have the classic salted flavour, I asked. “Yes. We do have that flavour in this brand of chips. But since it doesn’t really sell and nobody wants classic, we are out of stock,” the man behind the counter said.At the hep coffee place with scores of youngsters sporting PYT (Pretty Yuppie telephones), it was another big choice when it came to coffee. Hot coffee, cold coffee, international coffee. In hot coffee, it was Espresso (without milk), Americano (without milk, but lesser coffee bean), Latte (with milk), and more such. Where is my regular coffee buddies???