I am a milk person; having grown up drinking milk in one go, the bottoms up style, given the race between me and my brothers in our childhood. Coffee is something I keep for occasional drinking when I am in a mood for a good conversation or want to savour the weather, rainy or cold. In between I had become a regular coffee drinker for the simple reason that I was no more interested in Bournvita or plain milk. And then I quit drinking it again when it started appearing to be mundane because I truly want to enjoy my mug of coffee whenever I have it.
Today I woke up to an unusually cold morning, something I don’t experience much here in Bombay. Having grown up in Jaipur and Delhi, the winters here are no winters at all but that is beside the point. The pleasant chill made me want to whip up a nice frothy coffee and I reached for my mug as usual. This is my usual mug in which I have been drinking milk daily since it was gifted to me by my children, my class of VII-B who are now going to be in class X, with a picture of us all imprinted on it. The image is getting a little faded with constant use and the thought that I should stop drinking from it crossed my mind.
My association with mugs is as old as my marriage. Before that we all had our glasses to drink milk from. Abhay got me my first mug after marriage which had our zodiacs on it. It meant that the coffee was to be shared while my milk and his tea were to be entertained as independent choices. I went on with that mug for a long time and then it fell one day. We looked for many but there was no mug that I could call my own. Mugs went out of my life as swiftly as they had entered and then I got one for Shubham, it was a musical one which played a tune every time it was tilted. Shubham would drink his Horlicks in that and mugs made a reentry in my life. Over the years I have had a personalised one for Shubham, another personalised one with my friends’ picture, then the multitude of ceramic ones as well as the glass ones with lids, some with wonderful captions, others with sippers, all in multiple colours. I have got mugs with personalities that told their own stories, and stood out among the many. I got one for Shubham which reads, “I’ll be there for you!” and there is another which maintains temperature and I will gift it to that one friend who sips on green tea through the day; but one of my favourites reads, “Coffee is a hug in a mug”.
I think it’s high time I go get a new one for myself which would look worthy of carrying my favourite brew when I would cradle it in my hands and feel the hug in my mug!