Up For A Cha(a)t?
Move over coffee, catching up over chaat is the new trend we need
I grew up in Bombay, a coastal city that is neither too hot nor too cold. The unofficial finance and entertainment capital of this amazingly diverse nation. A magnificent city overlooking the equally magnificent Arabian sea. A city where you don’t often hear the words “Tu jaanta nahin hai mera baap kaun hai!” (Roughly translated to imply “You don’t want to mess with me, pal”). Suffice to say that it is nothing like Delhi, the actual national capital of India. The either scorching, burn-like-a-vampire-in-daylight hot or the freezing, body-turning-into-a-popsicle cold landlocked Delhi. Needless to say, bitter cold winters spent at my uncle’s house in Delhi watching my breath turn to ice do not elicit fond childhood memories the way summer days at Juhu beach building sandcastles and blowing soap bubbles do.
However, the one thing that does tie the two cities together is chaat. Feisty, fiery, leave-you-with-an-odd-sense-of-satisfaction chaat.
I suppose a good heartfelt conversation is much like a good plate of chaat — you never actually plan or go looking for it explicitly. But every once in a while, you find yourself immersed in its irresistible snare of sensations and sentiments and emotions. Almost like a cathartic vortex that sucks you in with its alluring promises of unbridled contentment and unfulfilled anticipation as the world around you fades into a distant cacophony of sounds and noises and for that particular instant, all that exists is you and this delectable cocoon of gratification. And once it is over, you emerge with this surreal feeling of lightness and contentedness and perhaps just a tiny sliver of exuberance, ready to face whatever comes next.
When was the last time you had that deep purgatory heart-to-heart conversation with someone? Who was it with? Did it make you feel light-hearted, lighter exactly by the weight of the unspoken thoughts and emotions buried within you?
I believe there is a certain courage, a rare sort of strength that humans exhibit when we share our thoughts, our emotions with each other. There is a certain bond created between you and me when I ask you about your day and you tell me how exhausted you are from the long hours at work and I tell you that it gets better and you smile weekly and you ask me about my day and I tell you that I have been floating four inches above the ground because the neighbor’s dog wagged his tail at super sonic speed looking at me and you chuckle and shake your head, visibly less worn out. An invisible string of unspoken empathy intertwines us and in that brief pocket of time, the few words we speak bind us together. It makes us believe we are not alone. With the right person, we barter our unfiltered thoughts for their unadulterated perspective, our raw emotions for their vulnerabilities, our humaneness for theirs. Together, and because of each other, we evolve. I believe such people and such conversations are to be savored, much like the last puri in the plate. The impenetrable void created by their absence is sometimes only filled by the savory memories of a shared past.
So, before it is too late, let good ol’ chaat come to your rescue. Coffee is passé. Drinks are too mainstream. Catch up with your colleague over a delightful plate of chaat and watch them open their mouth into a huge O to accommodate that puri while dishing out spicy gossip. Have a pani puri contest (or gol gappa or puchka or whatever it is called in your locale) with the loser footing the bill. Put some chaat masala over that dahi puri as you reminisce over the days of past with your old college buddy. Shamelessly ask for that extra sukha puri at the end the next time you’re out shopping with your mom. But most importantly, whatever be the medium, please do carve out the time and reach out to people who matter to you.
You’d be surprised to know what a simple “Up for a chat?” could lead to. Or just how desperately it might be needed.
