Thursday, April 20, 2006



At Barista

Final exams are 3 short days away, and guess what I'm doing (apart from updating my blog)? That's right, catching up on gossip at the cafe 5 minutes away.

Its always like this. The three musketeers (Veronica, Jezebel, and yours truly) decide to form study groups. Jezebel and I decide to get a head-start on the studying...but five minutes later, we're suddenly hungry and dying of thirst (which takes an hour to quench), so we decide to be good-samaritans and wait until Veronica gets to our room. An hour later, Veronica storms in, ranting that we aren't studying and what are we doing waiting for her, she'd been counting on us blah blah blah (sorry V)...and we skulk out of the room, feeling mildly guilty.

We all pile into an auto-rickshaw a few minutes later (after haggling with the moronic auto-driver), and arrive at Priya Complex. We are about to head of to Barista, when Veronica demands a Kebab. "I haven't fucking eaten anything all day and I'm starving", she announces. Now, what kind of friends would we be if we ignored her hungry appeals? We march off to Zaika's (the cheapest Mughlai food joint in Priya), and sit down, determined to help our friend in need.

The waiter comes over and hands us three menus, and, staring at the cursive writing, we start feeling hungry too. Before we know it, we have huge platters of food in front of us, which we are attacking with ravenous appetites (at first) and grim determination (when we are fit to burst). After another hour and a half (the Indian sun has long set), we waddle over to Barista, ready to hit the books.

After carefully deliberating on what coffee to order, we finally settle down, lugging our serious looking books and photocopies onto the delicate wooden tables.

Before I know it, my towering latte is over, I'm sucking on ice with my straw, and I'm super hungry (as you may gather by now, I live for food). I look up to check if anyone else seems distracted. Veronica is looking at me through her camera-phone lens and the Kimchee Queen (if she has braved our company) is languidly blowing out her cigarette smoke. Only Jezebel is valiantly fighting her natural lethargy, busily reading and highlighting some dreadfully theoretical text.

"Hey, does anyone get what a sthayibhava is?", Veronica asks in exasperation. Jezebel perks up and starts to explain at length the intricacies of Indian aesthetics. "See, in vyabhicari bhavas, the feelings are just physical, whereas in a sthayibhava, feelings come from our personalities", J explains eagerly to a bunch of blank faces. "This is so stupid", pipes in Veronica. I nodd absently while thinking about whether I should go ahead and buy that chicken sandwich.

"Do I have a super fast metabolism or just tape-worm...?" I'm wondering, glancing down at my watch to check the time. It's 10:30 pm. We left the campus at 6 pm. Its turned out just as always. "When will we ever learn?" I ask myself, smiling at the hopelessness of our non-existent study-sessions.

"Hey, hold that pose!" Veronica says as I hear the camera-phone clicking my picture.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have to take lots of pictures of you because you are so photogenic. The problem is that all those pictures of you are starting to clutter up my phone now. I can't find any other images without wading through the hundred photos I have of you in various poses and in various locations. I'm afraid that people who look in my phone are going to think I'm stalking you.

As for studying, we can go to Barista and try again tomorrow. hehehe

The Diplomat's Daughter said...

Finally you admitted it - you are stalking me! I don't mind though...at least you make me look good on your phone.
Yeah, I don't know about studying tomorrow...I'm all Barista-ad out!

Anonymous said...

That's what you say now.

Hillary for President said...

that you what yo say on my sight. i have given you a reader review on my main page. Very nice of you.

Warmest regards,

hillary for president

The Diplomat's Daughter said...

Huh? Thanks for mis-quoting me by the way. You'll probably extract the "thanks" from this message and post it on your site.

Anonymous said...

Okay "Hillary for President," at first I wasn't sure if you were joking or not but you were so unfunny I decided that you couldn't be. Now I know, however, that you are obviously just fucking with people. Please stop because you are really not funny. If your site is satire it sucks.

Hillary for President said...

Not try be funny veronica. this is serious subject. Many many people die at hands of neocon. ALOT of corruption and sandal's too.

i think hillary will be a great president. i am trying to make sure she defeats whoever vast rite wing ding conspiracy put there in 2008.

please help with your suggestion rather than jsut make fun all time. it is very rude, typical of Packi, but serious.

Anonymous said...

damn you're hot

Anonymous said...

Oh my God! Did you just call me a packi?? That is so funny. I'm going to tell all my friends.

If you want to convince people of your message you might try not addressing them with racial epithets. Some people take offense to that kind of thing.

Anonymous said...

haha - "Hillary for President", you are so fucking stupid. Maybe you should work on your English first and not try to "boost" Hillary's presidential chances. That might do you and her a lot of good.

The Diplomat's Daughter said...

Dear Hillary,
I take offense to what you said to Veronica on three levels:
1. You used a racial slur, which is very hyprocritical considering you told others not to use them in addressing you.
2. You assume V is Indian, and so, in calling her a "packi", you are lumping together Indians (and presumably Bangladeshis)as "packis", which is factually incorrect, amongst other things.
3. At least spell it correctly - its "Paki" not "packi" you utter dimwit.

Anonymous said...

Dear Hillary For President,

That you what yo say doesn't even make sense. That's why I can't be bothered to correct your spelling.

I will say, however, that I take offense at you slandering Pakistanis, who I hear from friends are very nice people and not at all rude like me. If you're so interested in Islam why are you dissing Muslim countries and their people like that? Shame, shame, shame.

Hillary for President said...

no mean offend. I thout she was from Packistan. My friend Mothi (Indianan) tell me back 2003 that people from Packistan where Packis like people Iraq are Iraqis. DId not mean to offend. A thousande plus 1 apoliges. Is veronica a Muslim? Did not mean to offense.

Anonymous said...

To the response above: ^

I seriously think you have a communication problem because most of the time people don't know wtf you're talking about. FYI, calling Pakistani people "Paki" is risking yourself being shot!

The Diplomat's Daughter said...

I think that when you abbreviate a term, such as "Paki" instead of saying "Pakistani", you are being deliberately offensive. Luckily Veronica took things in the right spirit, but I am very offended, on her behalf.
Another thing - maybe you should rely on some of your own research and not go by what someone (Indian or otherwise) tells you.
And I wholeheartedly agree with Jason.

Anonymous said...

Hillary for president,

It was all fun and games at first, but frankly this is a very serious issue:

"Paki" is a racial slur. Why don't you google the term and check for yourself. Whether or not you realized that, you did tell me that I was rude and that this is typical of Pakistani people, so you were obviously trying to insult them.

No, I'm not a Muslim, but I'm very interested in Islam and have actually lived in a Muslim country before (I've also lived in France, the country that you are so enamored with). I wish that you would stop talking about other cultures that you have very little understanding of in your blog. There are very naive people in the world who might actually believe you.