Ae Eff You Haan!

We heard this for the first time, from someone who looked like a guy. We were shocked to say the least, as during those days such queer behaviour hadn't struck our small town. It was at a Cafe' that we were branding & promoting, a quaint place called Sam'z. The same building also housed a popular radio station and 'Ae Eff You Haan!' was a RJ there.

Sam'z was soon becoming a happening joint of the city as it not only offered the best eats & beverages, but also gave a new definition to coffee shops. It was a warm & cozy place where the young & yuppie crowd met, spoke, jammed & generally had a gala time. It was like an alternate universe in a City where even today the day begins with Poha-Jalebi, served on a newspaper.

That was where we met this guy, very jovial, well-read, marketing exec. who was employed with the radio station. The only thing that set him apart from us was the fact that he was an IIM.A pass-out & we were strays of a local college. But when we met at Sam'z almost everyday, we realized that there is not much of a difference between the IIM protege and us loafers.

The IIM fella & us, were after all trying to find a foothold in a city where nobody gave a damn. His job was still easier as the blokes would open their wallets wider than Jayalalitha's waist, once the trickster exec got them to the swanky office. And we? Damn we didn't even have an office to call our own. So our base-camp those days was Sam'z. We would sit there all day long forming strategies, executing events and randomly shooting shit with the guests, thereby building a good crowd who would drop in sometimes, just to probably meet us & have some Cappuccino.

Though closed now, Sam'z remains a success story of ours that will always remain the closest to our hearts. Especially because we were instrumental in sowing the seeds of a cafe' like it exists in first-world countries. That was way before Barista & CCD had struck. Sam'z was our baby that was nipped in the bud for very personal reasons, otherwise, teamXtreme would have been today helming the Sam'z chain of cafe's. Magar ye ho na saka aur ab ye aalam hai ki blah blah blah...

Do come back for more... there's more brewing here than you expect.