Of Coffee Mornings and Science Madness

-by PARUL OHRI

Just as the tourism sector hires additional staff between October and March, and soft drink companies need more hands in summer, the numerous coffee shops scattered around DLF phase IV surely plan their extra hiring based on the activity calendar of Shri Ram School!   

I can visualise the panic in Coffeeland- “Yes, this is Hari Sadu.  Call HR for an urgent meeting, Shri Ram has announced Mad About Science in December.  Yes yes PSA driven!  More staff for Galleria branch NOW, increase early morning and afternoon shifts.”

For those of you, who haven’t yet established the connection, let me spell it out.  School events, if PSA driven, mean parents-who-volunteer, volunteers-form-teams, teams-need-meetings, meetings-need-venues and when-you-meet, you need coffee!  QED - coffee shops close to school.  Now all that remains is to add Mocha, Café Coffee Day, Flip, Choko La, Barista and some new delicious entrants like Delhi Heights on our communication networks.  Let them know our meeting schedules, so that they can start up the espresso machines accordingly. 

On one occasion, a bunch of us dropped the kids to school and landed up at CCD at a bright and early 8.40 am!  We were shooed out immediately with desperate fingers pointing to an “Open at 9 am” sign, while cups were being laid out and machines jerked out of peaceful slumber.  Enthusiastic and diligent that we were, we started the meeting on a bench close by.  And punctual that we were, we returned to the doorstep at sharp 9 am, this time ignoring the frantic “No, no Maam, not open” protests by pointing triumphantly to the sign that declared them open at 9 am.  Having lost legal grounds to throw us out once again, the staff now pointed to their groaning, still waking-from-slumber coffee machines and explained that coffee will not be served before 9.30.  Only when we promised to not bother them before 9.30 am and to just sit quietly in a corner discussing profound matters of Grade II science, did they allow us in. 

By the time we get into year 2 of MAS, think how easy it would be to locate your team. Just give the right context to the friendly staff at the cafes and they might just tell you, “Light and Colour?  Oh yes, they’re in Flip.  Sitting next to Simple Machines.”  “Magnetic Force just left Mocha, maybe Bio Mimicry is still there.”   And don’t be surprised if you are told, “Madam, aapke working model of pulleys mein weight balance ka problem hai, isko aise correct kariye….”  Never underestimate the value of your morning cup of coffee or its server!