J's Musings

By Janhavi B.

Life has a way of playing around with everyone. From the luckiest to the unluckiest, richest to poorest, everyone has had a taste of life’s game. Be it kid or adult, no one gets it their way here, except life. Because life is the puppeteer and we are its puppets. Nothing is in our control. Which is why we choose to write, here it is our world. Only our rules apply, we can go against gravity here. We are like life for our characters, the unpredictable and moody puppeteers to their boring lives.

We writers barely ever show sympathy towards our characters and after pain refuse to give them a safe place to confide to. It happens with us in real life too, sometimes we simply don’t have people by our side. This often leads to people turning to other sources for comfort, like art, music and books. Although quite often, books break our hearts and do not provide good consolation. So, today I am here to share with you a book which took me through the difficulties and many challenges of life and yet consoled me when I cried.

‘Before the coffee gets cold’ was a blessing in disguise for me and for anyone who needs an extra helping hand while dealing with life. It consists of 4 books (in the series) and each book has 4 different and interconnected stories which are written beautifully.

The connection between stories only goes to the main characters remaining the same. They are the workers/owners or regulars of the café ‘funiculi funicula’. The café was once the talk of the town in an urban legend which rumoured that the café could send you back in time. In truth the café can send you back in time, but only if you agree to the crazy rules.

• Return before the coffee gets cold.
• The present does not change.
• You cannot move from your seat in the past.
• Anyone who has not visited the café cannot be met.
• Only one seat allows the time travel experience and it is usually occupied by the café ghost.
• You must wait for the café ghost to get out of the seat before you can travel back in time.

The first book has 4 vivid and heart wrenching stories, the first is about lovers with unsaid words. The next about a wife who decided to get a gift from the husband who forgot her. The third about sisters with misunderstandings and little time to resolve it all. Last one is about a mother who saw the child she could never actually meet.

The characters share heart-warming bonds and personalities that will leave you with frissons and fuubutsushi. The characters are namely:

• Kazu, the owner’s cousin and waitress.
• Nagare: The owner.
• Kei: Nagare’s wife.
• Hirai: Café regular and owner of a nearby hostess bar.
• Fumiko: Café regular.
• Kohtake: Café regular
• Fusagi: Café regular

Many more enchanting characters await you, but I will not open about them and let you find out by reading yourself. The characters take us on an enchanting journey that is greater than ours and yet help us discover truths of our life. The value of many things in life is often overlooked by us, but this book somewhere reminds us to respect and value it all. Be it friends or family, the importance of communication and being clear in thoughts is vividly and well highlighted. Not being yonderly and paying attention to each other’s feelings is something it taught me.

They [the characters] will teach you things you won’t expect and help you with problems you didn’t know you had. My purpose of reading has always been to learn lessons vicariously and ‘Before the coffee gets cold’ is just that. Life does not teach lessons without pain, but if you have a ready mind and are willing to learn, this book will teach you, give you an experience of a lifetime. Wisdom is not necessarily painful, but it always comes with a cost,  is what the book teaches us. So, if you plan on reading this book be ready to cry, smile, laugh and feel a sense of catharsis by the end of the book.

At the end of the day, I wish you a read that will provide you a metanoia like it did for me.

Love,

Janhavi B.