The Fantastic 5 - Sigu, Navdeep, Manoj, Prerna and Coffee

The love is back and stronger! This time a new memory thanks to Navdeep Mayall. Today, I reminisce about my days...ooopsss... I mean nights with Accenture. One year and five months ago, I joined the P&G iPM process for Accenture. Happy about a new company, new job and shift timings (I started off with 12pm to 9:30pm shift) I started my training. As my training ended, so did my days in Accenture. My night shift was about to begin. For the first time in my life, I was going to stay awake all through the nights for months at end. For those of you who know me, know for a fact that I cannot, just cannot stay awake beyond 11pm, no matter what the situation!

I was tensed... not for my safety or body clock or health but for my staying awake! How would I do that? And then, as most of you expect, coffee came to my rescue; my savior, my love, my hero! I started having a Rs.7 cup of cappuccino every night at 10:30pm just before the CCD guy took off for the night. Yes, you read it right! It cost me Rs. 7 for a small cup of coffee (equivalent to normal cups we have at home) and Rs. 11 for a large cup (equivalent to half a mug). My love did not rob me of my earnings and I felt more loyal to it!

Soon after, Navdeep and Sigu joined the iPM team and we started having mid-night coffees prepared by Shambhu who I miss to this very day! With a smile on his face he would serve a cup of steaming hot, not-so-strong, watery coffee without sugar every mid-night and then we would jovially haggle about the costs (my argument being that I am not using your sugar, hence you should not charge me the same amount). Although the coffee wasn’t very nice, we would still have it (blissfully unaware of a tea-vendor who stood outside Logitech Park and also served some super hot, super strong coffee). 

The coffee breaks were fun. Most of the team would crowd around Shambhu, placing orders, cancelling them, modifying them and confusing poor Shambhu!

Soon, Manoj Patil and Navdeep started hanging out together. It was then that we started going out to the streets for a coffee/smoke break where Sigu, Navdeep and I would have coffee and Manoj would smoke. The coffee served outside cost us 5 bucks for an extremely small cup (which we could finish in 2 gulps) but the company and the not-so-fresh-air-thanks-to-all-DB-and-Accenture-people-smoking refreshed us and helped us survive the night.

I particularly remember this cold December night when the temperatures had  reached around 15 degrees although Manoj’s stupid iPhone App showed it as 20 degrees. All four of us felt a blast of the cold weather as soon as we stepped out of the building. The 2-minute walk to the compound gate made us shiver. It set our teeth chattering! Wondering what had become of Mumbai, coffee came to spread the warmth. The minute we held the cups in our hands, my love for coffee revived. For all these nights, I had taken coffee for granted but it was standing loyally beside me when I wanted it the most. The bitterness made me feel so good, so comfortable! It reminded me of the time when I had fallen in love with coffee.

Looking back at all the nights that I have spent with Sigu, Navdeep and Manoj, I realise that coffee was instrumental in building our friendship. It helped us bond, chat, discuss issues and have fun. Like a true hero, coffee always sat in the background while all we characters took centre-stage! It stayed with us through our thick and thin. I am glad I have coffee in my life!

To Navdeep, Sigu and Manoj;
To our Friendship and To our coffee!!