Time Stands Still

Cafe Mondegar

Many memories are stuffed in the air, some of tea, some of beer. I feel the place, a landmark in a way, defining a city and its people. There are white faces around, mingling with the brown..waiters scurrying around...and the smell of steak rises over the walls, outside onto the blue street where rain colours the faces.

It's a moment captured many times. Collegians pouring in, checking out the junk jewellery they bought. I light a Camel and remember my college days. A friend once said, "You'll always bump into someone you know here." He was right. This is where the city comes..if not always, then like me...maybe after 5 years.

The last time I was here, I was corrected for calling 'Rose' wine as if it were the name of a flower. In irritation, I played 'No More I Love You's' on the jukebox. Before that, it was a celebration of someone's marriage. Maybe my own. I don't remember. There were friends cheering, singing, dancing...now lost or far away. I remember the songs I have played on this jukebox, my crazy long haired friend rolling a joint under the table...I remember the love of my life, drunk, peeing in the sink...my best friend laughing out aloud...I remember the innocence of young youth...

It's peaceful now. The caricatures on the wall always seem new. You marvel at the ingenuity of the artist. Someone plays 'Jingle bells' on the jukebox and sings along. The whole place laughs...Here, you become one with the others, everyone is connected to you because they have all come here for the same reasons...familiarity...nostalgia...comfort...

I drink tea..I watch the rain...I wait for another friend...This is life...coming back to the same place again...coming back and feeling the same things again, pondering the same questions again..at home...once again.