On People Who Say, "I'll Be Right Back"
In Tbilisi, “I’ll be quick” is not a measure of time. It is a promise made with complete sincerity - just before the city quietly changes your plans.
There is one sentence in Tbilisi that I don’t believe anymore: “I’ll be right back.” During my first month here, I believed everyone. If someone said, “I’m just going out to buy some bread,” I honestly expected them back in ten minutes. Then I learned that bread isn’t really the point. In this story, bread is just an excuse.
One day I decided to buy some bread myself. Five minutes, I thought – ten at the most. I didn’t even take my phone. I was only going to the bakery.
Two minutes later I was stopped by my neighbour from the third floor, the one who knows everything before everyone else. Sometimes even before it happens.
“Hello! How are you?” You can’t answer “fine” and keep walking. Not in Tbilisi – that’s just how the conversation starts. A few minutes later I knew her grandson Giga had got a place at university. She said it as if the whole building had got in.
Then I knew where to buy the best tomatoes that day. Then we talked about the new produce shop. “It’s all right,” she said. “But the old one was better.” “Where was the old one?” I asked. I don’t know why I asked. I was never going to go there. But somehow it already mattered to me.
I was finally about to leave when she lowered her voice, the way people here lower it only for important things: “There’s fresh shoti coming out of the oven on the next street. If you’re buying some, go now.”
Now that mattered, because good shoti doesn’t wait. Tomorrow it’s just yesterday’s bread. By the time I reached the bakery, the bread was gone. I came home almost an hour later, without bread. But I knew where to buy the best tomatoes, where the old produce shop used to be, where to find the best shoti – and that my neighbour’s grandson is called Giga.
Since then, whenever someone in Tbilisi says, “I’ll be right back,” I just nod. Because I know how this story ends. You really can buy bread in five minutes – you just have to avoid running into anyone.
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Word of the Day: Male (MAH-leh) – “soon”. The most honest word in the language: it promises nothing specific.
On the Bread That Never Makes It Home Whole
Fresh shoti exists in two states: before the first corner is torn off – and after. For the first twenty steps, you still believe the bread might reach home whole.