1128. Your Coffee Is Getting Cold!

"Our daughter drinks coffee several times a day, the way men do" said Sabhapathy.

"Why? Shouldn't women drink coffee often?" asked his wife Sivakami.

"You find fault with me for asking you to get me coffee quite often. That's why I mentioned it as a habit of men."

"If a person like you, who is sitting at home idle, needs coffee quite often, shouldn't a person like me, spending a lot of time in the kitchen need coffee? I too would take coffee now and then, when I am working in the kitchen!"

"So that's the way it is! It seems only I should face flak from you, for drinking coffee several times a day!" said Sabhapathy.

Seeing their daughter Selvi coming from the kitchen with a coffee tumbler in her hand, Sabhapathy asked her, "How many cups of coffee you had today so far?"

Selvi just smiled and sipped the coffee relishing its taste and flavour.

"Selvi! Drinking coffee is ok. But why do you drink it so hot? The coffee is so hot that you have to hold the tumbler with a cloth. If the coffee passes through your throat so hot, will your throat withstand the heat?" asked Sivakami.

"It is so soothing. Haven't you heard the saying, 'heat will add to the taste.'"

"Oh! It is a saying everyone should know!" said Sabhapathy, laughing.

"What Selvi? You have stopped taking coffee often. Moreover, you take it lukewarm or even cold like water. Why is this change?" asked Sivakami.

"Did you not say that drinking it very hot may hurt the throat?"

"But, you countered me with the saying that heat adds to taste!"

"Well. I find that lukewarm coffee has also a taste of its own. Moreover, I want to cut down my intake of coffee. If I drink the coffee lukewarm, I don't feel like drinking it often."

"I don't understand. You young girls keep changing your whims every day!" said Sivakami.

When Selvi was drinking coffee sitting in a restaurant with Murugan, Murugan asked her, "You used to take coffee very hot. I have seen you retuning the coffee to the server, saying that it was not hot enough and asking him to bring it steaming hot. But, nowadays, you let the coffee get cold and then drink it? Why is this change?"

"It is just for a change. There can't be a reason for every thing" said Selvi.

"I am sure there is a reason. But you won't tell me. I have been observing you from the time we started being close. You keep several things to yourself. You should be called 'Secretive Selvi!'"

"I hold YOU in your heart, not secrets!' quipped Selvi. 

'Since I hold you in my heart, I am worried that if I drink something hot, the heat will affect you. That's why I have contained my desire to drink coffee hot and been getting accustomed to drink it lukewarm or cold. But If say this is the reason for the change in my habit, will anyone including Murugan believe me?' thought Selvi.

Thirukkural
Section 3

Love

Chapter 113
In Praise of Love

Verse 1128 (in Tamil):
nenjaththAr kAdhal avarAga veythuNdal
anjudhum vEbakku aRindhu.

Meaning:

My lover dwells inside my heart. If I take anything hot, he will feel the heat. So, I am apprehensive of taking foods that are hot.

(This is the English version of the Tamil story 'ARiya kAppi' by the same author.)

Verse 1129 (Soon)
Verse 1127