Friendship BREW

Friendship BREW
If the Friends have Central Perk, this bunch of Bangalore boys has its own corner cafe
Swati Anand & Debojyoti Ghosh | TNN


Is it the coffee? The cafe? The tree bang in the middle? Or the people? Pradeep Rajashekar (27) can’t quite put a finger on why he hangs out at the Barista, just off the bustling Jayanagar IV Block BDA complex. This software engineer has been coming to this place every evening for the past two and a half years, except for the three months he spent in Minneapolis last winter. “It was freezing and I’d hardly go out. I’d sometime go to a Starbucks, but I missed this place,” he says.
At Rajashekar’s favourite table by the tree are his friends, and you just get a hint of why this comfortable corner is treasured. “It’s really a second home. We come here after work by 9.30 pm for at least a couple of hours,” says Narendra Gangaram (27), who’s been Rajashekar’s long-time friend and member of the core group. “We leave at 11.30 only because this place closes. We’dlove to hang out longer.”
Gangaram and Rajashekar were introduced to Chetan Kumar (24), a freelance DJ, by the cafe manager, when they began hanging out here. And Kumar introduced them to his friend Salman Shariff (23), who’s with an investment banking firm. There are also techies Sharath Srivatsa (28) and Sidharth Masaldaan (24), both Rajashekar’s colleagues, and Karthik Srinivasan (30) and Aditya (23). “Aditya has moved to Pune, but when he comes to town, he’s here,” says Shariff.
For these South Bangalore boys, the cafe is conveniently located and that is perhaps one reason why it’s the focal point of their lives. Outstation trips are planned, started and ended here; there is office gossip, celebration of raises or new jobs; music CDs are stacked; birthday cakes are cut and crushes wax and wane — it all happens here.
Over time, they’ve made friends with each other’s friends and, of course, many regulars. “We’ve met people from various backgrounds — students, techies, civil engineers, people in the film industry — and that makes for eclectic conversation,” says Rajashekar.
Home, sweet home
On weekends, they meet around late afternoon and stay till the place closes. “Last night, after the cafe shut, we drove down to their outlet on Mysore Road and came home at 6 am,” says Gangaram. They did try other cafes, but either lousy service, inconvenient location or flashy decor sent them to the warmth of their “home”, where waiters know their orders and the manager is on back-slapping terms.
Codename Regulars
The group know other regulars largely by code names. For instance, The Fighting Couple which sometimes come with the Negotiator. “There’s Better Half who’s always craving for attention from Worse Half and Negotiator tries to calm them down.”
Starry-Eyed Boy does nothing but stare at the others. Page 3, who shows up in shiny white shoes, white jacket, white shirt and mercifully, blue jeans. Two Uno Girls, who come here to play Uno. And the Chess Group, which pulls up two tables for six of them and battle all evening.
And a Reading Group, which enjoy their tomes over a cuppa. And their favourite, Tattoo — a “very hot girl who has a tattoo on her arm”.
“We saw Dus Kahaniyaan and realized we could weave something similar sitting right here, having observed many people and sometimes, eavesdropping on their conversations,” says Rajashekar.
Cosy Couples
From mooney-eyed V-Day couples to those who come to blows to one “peaceful couple” who share one cappuccino every time, the group has analyzed all couples. “Once we saw a bride and groom who came straight from their wedding, in their finery, had coffee and left. We learnt they’d first met here and had courted here,” says Masaldaan.
But none of them has found love here. “This is the place just to have crushes, I guess,” says Rajashekar. In fact, there are no girls in the gang. “I guess that’s why we’re still together,” comes the cheeky response.