Monday, April 03, 2006

Caffeine blues

Till the age of twenty or so, I used to be extremely proud of the fact that I didn't drink, didn't smoke, didn't drink coffee or tea, and rarely had aerated drinks or sodas.

And then I realized that I could no longer afford to sleep in class, or worse, at the company I was interning with. Even if didn't technically sleep, I wasn't quite as sharp as I would have liked to be. There's something about this age... around the time you're twenty, your competitive spirit roars challenge at life and flings tradition into the trash can. And the mind may be strong, but the body can't always cope up. Sadly, the solution lies in... caffeine!

I still don't smoke or drink... partly because I'm no major fan of either, but mostly because I know my parents would lose their pride in me if I did. Before you ask me what is the connection to caffeine, let me expostulate. I categorize all these things under "vices involving artificial chemicals affecting the human mind and body". I've always maintained that the human body is best left to its natural way of functioning; things like illnesses are a different matter, but when there's nothing wrong with you, you should take nothing artificial that could affect your mind or body in any way.

But now, I simply need my daily caffeine boost if I'm to work long enough hours. If its too troublesome to get a cup of coffee, I settle for a can of Coke or something similar. Its surprising how a swig of cold Coke can pep you up... it has quite a bit of caffeine in it!

And with the consumption of caffeine, comes the price... addiction! It seems to me that each cup of coffee goes less farther than it used to. I have no doubt that before long, I'll be sipping two cups of coffee a day rather than one, then three, and so on.

You may be thinking this very moment, "What is the big deal about a cup of coffee? It's not like you're doing heroin!" but the point is, it is the principle of the thing. I consciously traded my convictions, and in a convoluted way, a bit of my treasured independence, in order to do my work better. It's a fair trade. But somehow it doesn't feel like I'm doing the right thing. What say you?

Cheers,
Prashanth.

13 comments:

Artful Badger said...

You just drink one a day?..
heh..at time i drink 3-4..but usually one..
its too acidic..

alraqs said...

come on, its coffee :)...I assumed most families have at least one coffee/tea drinker and one grows up with it being a normal thing, so,...well, although you've made a late entrance, welcome to the world of caffeine consumers!

Arti said...

Trading your convictions, whether it's for Coffee or Ritalin,can be a downer for a bit. But hey, on the bright side, Welcome to the Student Life! :)

Interesting reads on the blog,btw.

Deepti Ravi said...

Kaushik.. admit that the weird guy was Prashanth ;) ;) lol.. jus' kidding ( though *sigh* i guess i wouldn't be 2 surprised if it was him~!!! Was it ????? * breaking my head over it*).. Hey Prashanth... Welcome to what is the REAL WORLD!!HOW DID YOU LIVE WITHOUT COFFEE.. I'm brain dead without it !! ( Don't say , i am otherwise too ;) )

Prashanth said...

Grrrr.... you people... should have known I would get no sympathy here :)

Caramella,
Welcome... and what's Ritalin?

Kaushik,
Your friend makes perfect sense. Both or neither, else you're a hypocrite. Excellent train of logic. What's weird about that?

Deepti,
No, it wasn't me, and that Matrix quote was entirely inappropriate :)

Anonymous said...

oh. prashanth... dear dear prashanth..
you are funny and sad at the same time..

Hope you overcome your inner daemons.

-Rosa

Prashanth said...

Funny?
Er... I wasn't particularly trying to be :(

Sad?
*sigh*

Sundeep said...

"Black as the devil, Hot as hell, Pure as an angel, Sweet as love".
-- Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, with reference to coffee.

"A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into theorems" -- Paul Erdos

There are so many people out there who owe so much to coffee :). Don't be so gloomy about having entered the coffee drinkers club.

you may also want to consider this piece of information ;).

"Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar, and fat." --Alex Levine

Prashanth said...

Kaushik,
Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh... you suckered me! Damn! And I fell for it hook, line and sinker. I should have remembered we had a discussion on those lines 7 years ago...

Sankar said...

pacha,
yup... caffeine is what will take us past the hours... mountain dew was my thing when I was there at UMR. I never liked pepsi/coke and hence settled for dew for the share of caffiene. I was drinking coffee too over there mainly because of the fact that nothing else was great.
But it is not as addictive as I thought it used to be. I have hardly taken coffee / dew since coming from there and its been abt 2 yrs.

Divster said...

yes.. ur doing something wrong..
and that is the fact that YOU ARE WORKING TOO LONG AND TOO MUCH!!!!!

Rectify that.. and all will fall in place! :)

Or.. Hang a picture of steaming coffeee in front of u.. while working! Good stimulus( tested on dogs mainly)

PS no triple-meaning intended!Only double.. LOL

Anonymous said...

to divya and all those who think SP works too hard.

how should I put it delicately and without hurting Sp's feelings..

HE DOESN'T.

Prashanth said...

Sankar,
Thanks.. thats encouraging! And yes, mountain dew kicks harder than coke, but I think it tastes yuk :)

Kaushik,
Remember we talked about my Mom's eggless cakes?

Div,
Listen to anon (Nag?). I really don't work hard at all.