THE BURLA BARISTA

WARNING READERS...if u don't like this blog...then please feel free to blame one of my nerdy friends ..NAMRATA..who has vested upon me the title of BLOGBABA ...just to taunt me for sitting on one blog for almost 2 months...well Nerd Nemo here goes.......

The sickeningly sweet aromas flirting with your olfactory senses....the cheerful banter and raucous laughter emanating from nowhere.....the clink of unwashed tea glasses....and the nauseating stench of nicotine wafting towards the heavens...the ambiance is truly exotic....

Welcome to the badlands of Burla...and welcome to the nerve centre of college life...BULU TEA INC....the swanky glazed tin shop loaded with all kinds of goodies to endear to the college crowd..an 8 seater barista with open roof seating and personalised valet service with debit and credit system...customised greeting as one walks in and supersonic delivery....what more could a college kid want??? And at the helm of it all the managing director... Mr.Bulu Sahoo and vice president of operations, logistics,supply chain,marketing,sales and finance all rolled into one...Mr. Munna...and both are likely to make it to the cover of TIMES magazine...BULU...TEA BARON and Munna..youngest VP......ok i think i should pull back to reality now....

First let me give you a peek into the wardrobe of the patrons here and you will come crashing back to reality...

...seriously Armani , Gucci , Raymonds would shed a fortune just to get a fix into the eclectic and vibrant dress..

An unwashed tee shirt covered with stains from not only the mess(God bless the food), from the roadside dhaba, from the Gupchup stalls, unwashed lipstick stains on the Tshirt(Dont ask me how it got there), and from our very own dingy workshop...and of course half of the t shirt would be tearing at the seams after years of unwashed neglect....shorts that resemble the tattered and torn clothes from the tsunami survivors...and of course unkempt hair and a grizzled beard..again alluding to the unwashed state its patrons are in most of the times...

And then coming to the debit and credit system that is a lifeline for cash strapped kids like me..Bulu bhai as he is fondly known as maintains a dog eared register with most of his patrons names inscribed in scrawny handwriting.And a cursory glance at this register would make you gape in awe..his daily transactions make you wonder in amazement...heck this guy has more sales than an upmarket coffee joint.And Bulu bhai has an amazing memory about the financial transactions of his regular patrons..and even if he forgets he just fills in an average amount that just about equal to the daily spending habits of us guys.

Most of his sales are cigarette and pudia sales but when he has patrons like me who gulp down 15 cups of tea and 5 biscuits and 2 packets of mixture and 1 glass of Jaljira to gulp it down...That register contains the accounts of all its patrons that have visited him since the day he set shop at burla....and mark my words that his register will go down in the Burla hall of fame when VSSUT celebrates its diamond jubilee....:)

But what really endears Bulu bhai to the college crowd is the ambiance of the shop....here you dont need to worry about your dressing sense..you dont need to worry about your appearance ..(although you may look like you just walked out of a coal mine and then assaulted by aliens).. it does not matter whether you got a bad grade or had a fight with your girlfriend (it requires around 3 cigarettes to cheer up ...it does'nt matter whether you have cash in your wallet or you have the appetite for anything...it's a great place to unwind...the jokes about the faculty, the unrelenting leg pulling of the committed guys,the discussion about the latest tantrums thrown by the girls of your branch(never ending tantrums mind you... :P) one cup of tea,one puff of that gold flake,a pinch of pudia from a friend is enough to set your mood right

And the best thing about the place is that you dont need to have cash on your person to visit the place....sometimes you can just go and hang out there and ask for a sip of the tea...a drag of a cigarette and a pinch of that pudia...or just snatch way two biscuits from your buddies while they are having one....barring the cigarette and pudia asking i have done all the above...it feels great when you have absolutely no cash but still walk away after your "borrowed -without-permission" meal ...once i remember Nitesh dropped a biscuit packet by mistake and i had to battle it out with my canine friends to retrieve the biscuit packet.I was pulling at the packet and the dog wouldnt even budge...i had to resort to a solid kick before i could claim the spoils of glory.

And for most of us at Burla life wouldnt start in the morning without the morning cuppa...walking on the road bleary eyed at 7 am in the morning...perching precariously on the flimsy wooden bench and ordering...well sometimes you just dont need to order...your morning starter...whether a tea or cigarette is ready...thanks to Bulu bhai who knows all his patrons whims and fancies by heart...further what endears Bulu to the VSSUT crowd is that Bulu bhai is a gregarious guy who always has an anecdote up his sleeve..mostly about our faculty and students....the committed guys are the worst hit with special songs and jokes dedicated on their behalf...of course half of the stories are laced with so much melodrama and tall stories that the patrons wonder whether half of it ever happened....

But the best part of Bulu bhai's location that its bang in the middle of the road...and the long bench that its patrons frequent has an excellent view of the people plying on the roads...correction its not people...i meant an excellent view of our college girls(no pun intended)....it doesnt matter whether the girl is a senior or junior...whether the guy himself is a junior or senior...the comments flow thick and fast through that air...some of the times its been a genuine compliment to the girl...although the compliment gets dissolved in the flurry of comments that follow...and all through these years i've been observing the faces of the girls...mostly its apprehension...mostly disgust...sometimes a sly smile...sometimes a malicious glance...but hell whenever there is an incident involving a girl and a comment i am the one who inadvertently gets dragged into the affair...and i have never opened my mouth while sitting there...i was too busy enjoying the delicacies there...
But i have been guilty of admiring the view ...that i confess too....yet again no pun intended.. :P

And as i dash off to class after a hurried morning tea cup that too with my bowels groaning under the pressure of last night's food......as i amble down for an evening cup...walk back dejected after a horrible exam performance....sometimes walk arms akimbo after a successful fest..or just hang out with friends....

At the end of the day ....it does'nt matter whether the tea tastes good...or the biscuit is damp...what matters is the times i have spent there.....after one year ill be packing my bags and heading off to some distant land...but the memories will still linger ...like the smoke rings that engulf Bulus' in the evening.The raucous laughter and merry banter will forever hang in the air for years to come....for years to come...whenever i would wake up in the mornings...i would still feel someone tugging at my sleeve dragging me to Bulu...thats the magic of the place..the magic of Burla Barista.

Happy Summer Holidays folks..............