A bad day at Cafe Coffee Day

Before they began, I was pretty much looking forward to my vacations. But later, when exams got over, that excitement started to fade away. And the reason was very much obvious - no more meeting friends as regularly as before, that feeling of remaining in the confines of my home and more prominently those black benches in the college which would be missed a lot (I must clarify, the benches in our classrooms were brown, black ones were near the campus lawns ;) ). So today, about a week into the vacations, I decided to meet up few of my friends. I stay a little away from where most of my folks stay, so its me who goes out to meet them. And even otherwise, this place seriously lacks good relaxing, enjoyable venues.

So, I headed to Aaditya's home, and called Robert over to his place. For me, being an ardent coffee lover, in Aadi's company, selecting Cafe Coffee Day as our next venue didn't take much time and came rather naturally. So we three landed up in CCD and seated ourselves on the chairs as against the couch, were we usually sit. That upset us a bit but then its no Central Perk, and we are no F.R.I.E.N.D.S. that we get to sit at the same place everytime.

Knowing less, about the more unpleasant things that were to happen, we took a look at the menu. It was certainly different from what it usually is. The brown, multi-page menu was replaced by a single, slightly long placard-ish purple one. Ever before today, I used to somewhat admire CCD for the sophisticated and appealing names they gave to various coffees. The feeling changed, on finding that their attempt to be creative was miserably overdone. They had to take help of certain Hindi words to name the Coffee-combos. First, I have no objection to using Hindi names, unless it is done pathetically. Second, notice the word 'combo'.

After discussing that in a confused state, we were not-so-soon helped by a CCD-guy. We were told that the changed menu was only for today and that we won't be getting our regular coffees. They would be accompanied with either ice-creams or cookies - Compulsorily. Further more, an irony was awaiting us. We were told that the add-ons will be Complimentary, but they will be charged for.

"My dear CCD too started resorting to such marketing strategies", I said to myself.

A little disheartened, we ordered a Sizzling Brownie - which would be served with three extra scoops of ice-cream - "Complimentary".  Meanwhile, the couch was vacated and we promptly moved over to it. After the usual chat and an unusually long wait, the sizzling brownie finally arrived, not sizzling. At least one thing didn't change. The way we friends gorged on it (and no, it is not uncivilised).

Suddenly, when everything started to seem normal, the music suddenly started hurting. The shrill voice from some old Akshay Kumar - Shilpa Shetty movie hurt our ears and our tolerance. Ignoring it under the pretext of a It-Might-Be-Another-Mistake we waited for it to change. It changed, for the worse. Now it was Govinda, definitely not at his best. All this at a place which Aaditya introduced to us as one with "good ambience and good music" and to which we sure agreed, sounded disheartening.

We soon asked for the bill, "Cheque" as what Aaditya would prefer to call. As with everything else, that too arrived, late. After making the payments, we asked if they allowed us to write in our comments and suggestions somewhere. We were "promptly" (no sarcasm intended here) provided with a small coffee cup shaped questionnaire and a pen. Annoyed with the day's service, we commented with sarcasm. We wrote all over the questionnaire, ignoring the questions, as if it were a plain piece of paper. We would have written more than 2 sentences, if the pen didn't stop working!

We stepped out of the place, not missing the smell of coffee - it was anyways not there today.

Here's signing out with a small wish for my dear CCD..

Get Well Soon...