In a quiet café corner, two friends meet regularly over coffee.
Swami arrives with the latest worry of modern life — a confusing decision, a social irritation, or a small everyday crisis. Jigneshbhai listens patiently and offers calm observations that are equal parts humour and perspective.
Jigneshbhai and Swami is a series of short, light-hearted stories about the strange, familiar chaos of everyday living. Scroll through the conversations below and enjoy their reflections on the world around us.
The other day the weather was good, and we decided to walk after lunch instead of meeting in a café in the evening. I met Jigneshbhai and Swami just outside their apartment complex, and we decided to stroll along towards the park nearby. A car slowed down next to us while we were walking. The … Read more
“Choose enemies that give you energy, not drain your energy,” Jigneshbhai said as we met for our coffee last weekend. He was reading from a book that he seemed to have picked up. It said ‘Choose Your Enemies Wisely: Business Planning for the Audacious Few’. Swami and I peered into the title with curiosity as he … Read more
It was one of those evenings last weekend when Swami arrived at our café table looking as though he’d wrestled with a tiger. Except the tiger was invisible, and possibly digital. “I wasted an entire hour last night,” he began, even before ordering his coffee. Jigneshbhai did not take Swami’s exhaustion seriously. I thought Raichand … Read more
“Can we move to the next slide?” Swami yelled while sipping his coffee the other day. Jigneshbhai and I could see that he was in a bad mood. We didn’t stop him. “Let us get straight to the insights!” Swami howled. “Come on, who is the time-keeper? We don’t have all day,” he shouted. “Was … Read more
“An error of omission is a mistake that happens when something that ought to be done isn’t done,” Jigneshbhai read aloud from a book that he was carrying. It drew my and Swami’s attention from our coffee. “But are they errors always? The things that you miss. The stuff that you omit?” he asked us. … Read more
Swami was worried last evening. I realized it by seeing the way he walked into the cafe. “The next few months are going to be bad for the markets,” he said. “But I think it is a good time to buy mid-cap stocks now for my retirement corpus.” Jigneshbhai was unperturbed sipping his coffee, neglecting … Read more
“In my apartment, the parking is in the basement,” Jigneshbhai said when we met last weekend for coffee. “Nothing new in that. Most apartments in urban areas have that,” Swami cast him off with a ‘what’s the big deal’ look. But I knew our wise friend wasn’t done, so I waited for him to say … Read more
“I think I made a big mistake by buying this endowment policy twenty years back,” Swami said, peeping into a piece of paper, over coffee when we met at the café the other day. “At that time, no one knew, least of all me, that term insurance is the only insurance we need. And this … Read more
It was only the second week of January when Swami walked into the café looking like a man who had already been defeated by the year. He plonked himself on the chair opposite Jigneshbhai, sighed heavily, and declared, “It’s over.” Jigneshbhai looked up from his coffee, mildly amused. “What’s over, Swami? The year’s barely begun.” … Read more