The Greeks called me up and said, 'Παμε για ενα καφε᾽ - 'Come for a coffee.' So I did.
The 'Greeks' are the friends I've made here in Mumbai outside of work. I have also have colleagues I consider friends, but I found while living overseas that, for me at least, it's preferable to have friends outside of work as limiting oneself to working, socializing, and in the case of Mumbai, also living in the same place, it can get a little intense. I like having a private life and my personal space.
Anyway, the 'Greeks'. There's only a few of us and we're all here for different reasons, but we've somehow all connected and realized we enjoy each other's company. So now we try to keep in touch with one another with phone calls or text messages here and there, and every now and then we go out and do something. It doesn't always work and everyone isn't always able or interested in whatever we're doing, but we've made a little παρεα.
So, we go for coffee. But not til 6m because it's too hot if we go earlier. When we meet at the coffee chain up in a posh northern suburb, we decide we want to go somewhere nicer - which I'm happy about as I don't like that coffee chain anyway. So we stroll for awhile til we find an outdoor table on a shaded patio at an Italian restaurant. But, really, who wants coffee? So we order cocktails.
A couple of martinis later, we should probably eat, so we go inside. It's freezing cold because everywhere in India they abuse the air conditioning so any time you're indoors, you might as well be in a meat cooler! We eat, we talk, we have a few more martinis. We make plans for next weekend and possible travel excursions after that. We laugh at each other and we laugh at ourselves.
And that's the best part. We talk and we laugh and it's good. Ειναι καλα παιδια.
The 'Greeks' are the friends I've made here in Mumbai outside of work. I have also have colleagues I consider friends, but I found while living overseas that, for me at least, it's preferable to have friends outside of work as limiting oneself to working, socializing, and in the case of Mumbai, also living in the same place, it can get a little intense. I like having a private life and my personal space.
Anyway, the 'Greeks'. There's only a few of us and we're all here for different reasons, but we've somehow all connected and realized we enjoy each other's company. So now we try to keep in touch with one another with phone calls or text messages here and there, and every now and then we go out and do something. It doesn't always work and everyone isn't always able or interested in whatever we're doing, but we've made a little παρεα.
So, we go for coffee. But not til 6m because it's too hot if we go earlier. When we meet at the coffee chain up in a posh northern suburb, we decide we want to go somewhere nicer - which I'm happy about as I don't like that coffee chain anyway. So we stroll for awhile til we find an outdoor table on a shaded patio at an Italian restaurant. But, really, who wants coffee? So we order cocktails.
A couple of martinis later, we should probably eat, so we go inside. It's freezing cold because everywhere in India they abuse the air conditioning so any time you're indoors, you might as well be in a meat cooler! We eat, we talk, we have a few more martinis. We make plans for next weekend and possible travel excursions after that. We laugh at each other and we laugh at ourselves.
And that's the best part. We talk and we laugh and it's good. Ειναι καλα παιδια.
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