What Are People Working On In Coffee Shops?

I LOVE coffee. There I said it. But that’s nothing new right? Because we’re all coffee connoisseurs, aren’t we? New figures show Indians now consume 25 million cups of coffee per day. We’re going gaga over cold-brew and single origin roasts and are happily spending away all the cash we should be filtering into our fixed deposits, to carry coffee from our nearest barista to an office that already serves coffee. This is because, I think, more than even the drink itself, we just love coffee shops.

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Of course, the coffee comes into it; if it wasn’t for that delicious caffeine rush, you might not keep going back to the same coffee shop with the rude barista who judges you for sitting in his cafe for hours for the price of one latte. But for me, coffee shops are more about the vibe. The glamour. The promise that somehow,?coffee shops equal creativity and inspiration, like we’re all suddenly Jhumpa Lahiri because we’ve had an Americano with a drizzle of cream.

Right now, I am cozy in a coffee shop about 500 metres from my house and I can only wonder one thing - what exactly is everyone doing? Naturally, I am writing about this because my curiosity is getting the better of me, but before it kills the cat (and me), I turn around and asked this gorgeous girl sitting next to me, “What are you doing at this very moment?”.

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While that question sounded really good in my head, I just felt creepy when I said it out aloud, but this girl seemed to be delighted and told me exactly what she was doing. Her answer, “You won’t believe it but my sister made it to the class of 2019’s Forbes 30 under 30! I am writing her a congratulatory email and booking my tickets to Hong Kong to see her!”

I was thrilled and so excited for her and her entire family. With such a positive response, I decided to take my experiment forward and nearly every person sitting in the shop told me exactly what they were doing. So, let me put you out of your misery and let you in on exactly what these people were working on. Here’s a selection of my favorite answers:

1. “I am the founder of an environmental non-profit organisation and right now I am responding to emails and just chilling out.”

2. “I am an entertainment writer for a popular content platform. Right now, I am writing about how Karan Johar’s trashy but insanely expensive clothes are equal to 45 girls' college education.”

3. “I am a student. I have been invited to a close friend’s party where I don’t know anyone else. So, I just googled: what to do at a party where you don’t know anyone.”

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4. “I am a client servicing executive. I am just gearing up for this supremely important pitch to a nasty client. But his guilty pleasure is gluten free chocolate chip cookies, so instead of buying them I am hoping to find an easy recipe. Home-made cookies combined with my team’s brilliant ideas is why I will win his business ;)”.

5. “I am learning Spanish in my free time. I just wrote my very first love letter in Spanish to my ex- girlfriend. A letter I will never post.”

6. “I am editing this fashion blogger’s picture. I love the coffee & people inspire me. So voila, I am here.”

7. “I’m an architect. I’m working on a construction project for a building I own in Nice, dealing with my contractors.”

Maybe it’s just caffeine-addled pop philosophy, but I think we love coffee shops because they offer somewhere else to be. Not home, not work, just a favoured place of escape. A place just to sit and exist for one hour or five. You can be alone in a coffee shop, without anybody and end up finding company in solitude. Plus, they smell bloody delicious.

Oh, and the best part? I made 10 new friends who I am going out with for drinks later tonight. We have formed our own little clique. What makes us click? Our immense love for coffee and coffee shops, of course. How did I get here? By asking just one question, “What are you doing at this very moment?”.