It’s 4 o’clock in the evening and a coffee shop in a hip suburb of Mumbai is full. These are not everyday customers; they are here for a reason. Most of them are overweight or obese but some are strikingly well groomed.

They are all here for a support group meeting, especially for obese and morbidly obese people. Probably Mumbai’s first.

Why are they attending this support group meeting? Simple, they seek solutions to their problem, obesity. Everyone here is talking about their battle with obesity and how some have overcome it while others are still struggling.

One of the attendees Shobha (name changed to protect identity) a gregarious 30 something woman seems high on excitement, dressed impeccably in a green and red salwaar kameez with matching red stilettos, makeup, earrings and a even a red bag she goes about chatting up with almost everyone. No sooner than she introduces herself to the other person that she flashes her old photographs. She was 104 kilos a year ago and now she weighs a mere 60 kilos. She can’t stop talking about her weight loss.

Sometimes she lets people in on her secret, she has had anti obesity surgery. She doesn’t like to talk too much about it though; she prefers that the attention be focused on how stunning she looks.

But considering her talkative manner she can’t keep quiet for too long. She narrates her story, she was 104 kilos before surgery and very miserable. She had high diabetes and joint pains; she couldn’t go on a diet due to her diabetes and couldn’t exercise due to her joint pains. Every day she would cry and pity her state. She had tried so many diets but simply couldn’t lose more than 5-10 kilos at a time. Even if she did, she would gain that weight back again in a few days.

It took a great amount of persuasion from her family to undergo surgery, she always said, “Who undergoes surgery for obesity?”.

One day all of that changed her best friend had a heart attack, that is when she decided that she had to do something about her health.

Few weeks later she called the Centre for Obesity and Diabetes Surgery and fixed an appointment with Dr.Muffazal Lakdawala, later she underwent surgery and transformed from a cocooned introvert to an outgoing social butterfly.

She makes it a point to attend all the support group meetings, partially so she can boast about her weight loss and partially so she can tell people how anti obesity surgery changed her life for good. Dr.Lakdawala attends all the meetings too, and Shobha can’t seem to get enough of him.

She is cured of her diabetes and doesn’t have any joint pains. She loves going to the gym and her husband can’t stop boasting about his great looking wife. Life has taken a complete turn for Shobha.

She is not the only one though, there are many in the room whose lives have changed drastically. And they all have one thing in common, anti obesity surgery.

Every month they all come together, at this event organised by the Centre for Obesity and Digestive Surgery aptly titled ‘Coffee with Muffi’, they meet each other and others who are unaware about the ill effects of obesity. At the support group meeting they discover that they are not the only ones suffering and that their suffering can be put to an end, quickly with Anti Obesity Surgery.