Just doing his job

I’m becoming quite cynical. I was totally the flower power, chilled out hippy before but alas things are a-changing.

Couple of weeks ago, I got stopped by a cop near my house. Reason? Nothing at all. He didn’t even bother to give one. Strange I thought. I’ve been down this road hundreds of times and never been stopped even though there are always cops positioned there. Then it hit me. I was with 2 cousins and my sister. Male cousins. The cop thought they were our boyfriends. Of course he couldn’t say that so he figured he’d find a reason; 2 guys and 2 girls driving around at 9 PM, there had to be something he could get some money off of us for. ”Registration madam?” “Yeh lo bhaiya” says I. Said a silent thank you to my dad who makes me take out all the papers from the car every so often and identify which is which. ”Driving license madam?” “Lo bhaiya”. My mom doesn’t let me go to the bathroom without it. I’m not kidding.  ”Ye bhi hai? Sheesh.” his eyes say. “Gaadi kiske naam hai?” “Company ke bhaiya”  ”Aapki company hai?” “Haan”. Dammit he thinks. “Guess I ain’t getting my daaru from them tonight.” ”Acha jao”. I put my car in gear when he says “Ruko. Pollution check?” “Now I’ve got you woman. Muhaha” say the evil eyes. “Dude.” I think. “My driver stands in front of my car, refusing to let me go to work until I get my pollution check on time.You’re taking pangas with the wrong family here”. Finally after satisfying himself that there was no money to be made, he let me go.   

The entire incident left a bad taste in my mouth. It should never have happened. I wasn’t speeding, I hadn’t been drinking, and I wasn’t breaking any rules. Heck I drive at an average speed of 40 Kmph and wait when the light’s red at this traffic signal on a one-way street near my house (they forgot to remove it even after closing down the side road it was meant for).  There was no justification for it.

I was talking about this to a friend the next day, and her argument was that these guys are there for our security and it wasn’t fair to be mad at them for doing their job. I didn’t get it though. How is this their job? I wasn’t putting anyone else’s life at risk. I wasn’t at risk. Putting it simply, I wasn’t their target audience that night. I don’t have the right to be rude or demanding to a client just because I’m helping them out by giving them a service right? Similarly, protecting civilians is a job for the police.  It’s dangerous sure, but it’s something they chose to do. They don’t have the right to flag down citizens and look for reasons to catch them out.

Also, why did they chose to do it that night when we were 2 boys and 2 girls and not on other nights when I go out with 2-3 female friends and a lesser number of male friends?  I could have really been out with my boyfriend and not cousins. That’s still not a crime. A friend was out driving with her friend and she got harassed by a cop simply because they had parked to the side of road while she showed him a book she had just got him as a present. Maybe the cop thought they were making out, which might justify him questioning them but he had no proof. He couldn’t have seen them do anything, because they really weren’t. She was forced to call her older brother and get him to speak to the cop so that they could be allowed to leave. 

I’m all for strict security checks at malls, movie theatres and other public places. That is really them doing their job. (Of course people manage to take that too far as well. The security guards at a popular movie theatre nearby refuse to let you take chewing gum inside. The last time I went there, the woman who checked my bag emptied my brand new box of gum on a not so clean piece of paper, prodded each piece to make sure it didn’t blow up and then told me I could take it from her on my way out of the hall. The same woman also asked me to turn on the backlight of my simple Sony Ericsson phone to prove that it was in fact a phone and made me open my mouth and stick out my tongue to prove that what I was eating was really Strepsil. Sheesh) Anyway, while it is possible to check the 200-300 people that come to one of these places everyday, it is simply not possible to check every car out on the road unless they are visibly erring and I refuse to believe that I was a random sample for the cop that day.

I guess I needed to grow up and realize that the world ain’t flowers and butterflies and people aren’t always cool. Sigh.

Stress Bustin

Heavy metal is extremely therapeutic. Who’d have thunk it.

My current favourite song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOWB6rmSd4I&feature=related 

Listen to it a couple of times. It really grows on you.

Costa Chronicles

So I went into Costa today and there’s a woman sitting there wearing rather odd flowing clothes and a big white tikka on her forehead. As I walked past her table to go to the counter, I saw a bunch of brightly coloured cards spread out on her table. That’s when I realized she was a tarot card reader, and she was doing a reading right there at Costa I’ve heard of people working at coffee shops, but this was definitely taking it too far.

That’s not the only strange thing I’ve seen in coffee shops in India though. I’ve been to a lot of coffee shops in UK and Dubai but I can safely say that coffee culture in India is definitely something else. A couple of months back, I went to Costa in the afternoon and it was strangely busy for that time of the day. I walked inside to find a friend of mine interviewing candidates for her organization at Costa. Apparently they were running behind schedule because she went up to a table where a woman sat alone and told her she was sorry it was taking so long. Immediately, at least 8 other people from nearby tables stood up to announce that they were waiting for interviews too. So basically even though every table at the place was full, only 2 were actual paying customers, everyone else was just waiting for an interview.

At least those people were using the place for work though. A lot of people seem to think of it as a ‘family restaurant’. Every Sunday you’ll find these large families complete with kids, ayahs and grandparents taking over the entire place. The noise they make is worse than animals at a zoo during feeding time. I went there on a Saturday night with a friend, and a group of people walked in. Their kids actually stood in a row right in the middle of the shop where you had no option but to see them and danced to the music playing in the background, while the adults fondly cheered them on. Umm, hello? It’s annoying when you force your guests to watch your ‘adorable little bachas’ dance like clumsy penguins at your own house, we don’t wanna see them do that in an adult coffee shop! An ad for Meena Bazaar in the Hindustan Times yesterday said very clearly – No Children Allowed and I wholeheartedly appreciated the sentiment. There’s a time and a place people! (Or at least definitely a place)

Anyway, before I go into crazy ranting mode, I should change the subject. People ask me how I can go by myself and spend hours at Costa, but it’s always interesting sitting there and just watching people around me. I’ve seen people host dinner parties at Costa complete with napkins folded into swans and red balloons floating above every chair. I’ve seen what appeared to be a speed dating event around Valentine’s Day at Costa. I’ve seen what almost became a bomb scare (this guy left his backpack inside while he went outside to make a call, and this being only a week after the September bomb blasts in Delhi, people at a nearby table got a little paranoid). I’ve heard a lot of interesting conversations – a lot of fighting couples, two men talking very seriously about how to extract as much dowry as possible from the woman’s family, an interior designer trying to pacify an angry client, ‘kitty party’ ladies discussing designers and labels, couples on their first dates, literary discussions about books and music, and so much more. It’s like a display of urban Delhi society right before you. What more do you need?

Edit: Actually when you think about it, I’m taking Costa to be representative of all coffee shops in Delhi, which it really isn’t. Cafe Turtle in GK1, Market Cafe in Khan Market, a couple of Cafe coffee day outlets and a bunch of others still have a specific kind of audience (users? visitors?). The first 2 are mostly young professionals and the cafe coffee days have young college kids. These places have a very different feel from Costa. But then again you can’t walk into any of these and sit with your legs up on a chair and play Taboo with your friends (yes, we did that once and there’s someone out there probably writing a post about insensitive jerks that disturb everyone’s peace but it was only once and we stopped after some people told us to shut up). So I guess it’s a fair exchange. We go there and do the crossword in their newspapers every night and they inflict other people’s children upon us in return. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

Things I don’t get about Facebook’s new design

Like every major update by the Facebook team, there’s been a lot of outrage about the new design. A recent poll by a Facebook application shows that 94% of Facebook users disapprove of the design change. If you want proof, just take a look at their official blog where they talk about the new changes, it doesn’t get nastier than this! (Well, actually there was their recent TOS controversy )

Being slightly averse to change (Ok fine, a lot averse to change), a complete revamp yet again ain’t easy to adjust to. But even for a regular change accepting user, the frequency of their revamps is a bit much. Making any changes at all to a website with these many users is bound to be difficult. Making such significant changes so frequently is rather ridiciulous and perhaps even fatal. LinkedIn has been introducing new features left, right and centre over the past few months. As a user, I haven’t had any difficulties at all in adjusting to them. The new features have a user interface that is consistent with that of their existing features and my experience with the website hasn’t changed, at least not for the worse anyway. Facebook on the other hand insists on making drastic changes, all at once, and to features that weren’t really ‘broke’ to start with (Judging by the frequency with which it is being used – ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it‘ seems to be the slogan for this latest bout of user outrage). 

There’s been a lot of talk about how Twitter’s increasing popularity has alarmed the team at Facebook but if you ask me, imitation won’t help fight the competition. The 2 services have different USPs, and introducing Twitter features just to match will only dilute Facebook’s original value. Facebook has always been about ‘networking’. Making 2 way connections between people, keeping in touch with them and what’s happening with their lives. That doesn’t have to be through constant communication, just getting regular information about them and what they are doing through features like wall messages, photos, events etc. is enough. I could not talk to a friend for a year and still know exactly where she is and what she is doing through Facebook.

Twitter on the other hand has always been more like a public conversation tool. Sure it’s networking too but it can be one way as well. I can ‘follow’ a celebrity even though he or she doesn’t follow me. I would know about them or their lives only through what they choose to ‘tweet’. Seeing that I would use the two for different purposes, Facebook changing the format of their status updates and making ‘real time’ feed updates just to be ‘Twitter’ really doesn’t seem to create a lot of additional value for me as a user.

Things I don’t get about the ‘new’ Facebook:

1. Status updates don’t exist. Sure the box is still there, but they ask you ‘What’s on your mind now’. That’s not a status update. “Vidha: I love Costa” doesn’t really say anything. On Twitter when they say “Vidha: I like Costa” it means Vidha is saying “I like Costa”. This is common knowledge since public conversations is what Twitter is about. On Facebook however, traditionally status updates were statements about Vidha (hence the default ‘is’). “Vidha: I like Costa” makes no sense in that context now. Should we all assume “Vidha: I like Costa” is now the Twitter definition? So if we’re communicating through status updates now, why do we need a wall or message inbox at all? 

2. Following the same reasoning, applications like quizzes now say “Vidha: Check this out”. Does that mean they are telling my friends that I want them to check that application out? Presumptuous, what?

3. They ask you to ‘Share’ what you’re writing on someone’s wall. Now of course everyone knows that walls are public and what you write will be read by a lot of people but it doesn’t necessarily mean I want to ‘Share’ what I’m writing to someone with all his/her friends. Twitter is a public conversation tool. Facebook is meant for keeping in touch with people (Yes, I’ve said that already but really people. Get your USP straight). When I write something on someone’s wall, its only meant for them, even if other people can read it.

3. What good is a real time feed update update really? I don’t care if everyone in my friend’s network sees the message I left on her wall 2 hours later after I actually did it. I’m not starting a conversation with them. I’m talking to him or her. Since he or she won’t get my message until they actually log on to Facebook or check their mail, a live conversation wouldn’t be easy anyway. Disclaimer: Actually, this just might be a personal opinion. A lot of users use Facebook through their mobiles or are constantly logged even through their laptops in which case using Facebook for live communication might make sense, but again, that seems like a dilution of USP to me. What is the point of Facebook again?

4. The right Highlights panel is just too small to get any real information from. And I’m still confused about how they decide what a highlight is. Is it a photo album featuring a lot of friends? Or something that a lot of people have commented or done some other activity on? Where are my birthday reminders and pokes? Just little teensy boxes among a ton of other stuff that you can’t read anyway?

To be fair, the revamp does have a couple of good points too. The feature that lets you filter your feed by networks is pretty cool even though I’ve never really felt the need to use it since I am part of only 2 networks (Actually do they even allow you to be part of more? Will have to check that out).  What I found really useful is the ability to filter your wall notifications. I was completely against the previous change where everything went on your wall, not just messages from friends as before, but notifications about everything you did on Facebook (e.g. write on friend’s walls, accept a friend invite etc). But I suppose they did need a place to consolidate all the activities that a user did especially after all the applications were unleashed, and the wall was the easiest place to do it. However, combining all that stuff made the wall pretty messy and the new filters that let you view only your own activities or those of your friends make it easier to make sense of it all.

I’ve only been invited to one “I hate the new Facebook” group almost a week after the change so either users have finally realized they don’t help or I’m not as popular as I thought I was (You can’t really count the TOS thing because that was majorly bad PR for Facebook so the situation was a bit different. You can condemn Facebook for infringing on users’ rights but introducing silly little comment boxes with a thumbnail that confuse me every time I see them is really their prerogative). Anyway, the status updates (So-called status updates!) about how much the new look sucks are gradually disappearing too. Another week and people will probably settle down and get used to the changes. I mean how many people really remember what Facebook was like before the last set of changes or before they opened up registration to people outside of university and insititution networks? 

 But seeing the speed with which Hi5, Friendster, Bebo and several other once popular social networks have been left far behind in the race, Facebook would do well to take some time and re-think their strategy and implementation. Another year of this and we could well be remembering the time when everyone ‘was’ on Facebook. 

Disclaimer: This is only my personal opinion based on my experience with the new Facebook so far. I believe there are a lot more changes to the pages features and several other that I haven’t really used yet.

Travelling and More (Random Rambling)

So its been a while since I’ve been here. This has been one crazy month. So much’s been happening in the past couple of weeks that this week I’ve actually been glad to come home straight from work every night and just sit in my pyjamas and watch TV. I can’t remember the last time I did that. Voluntarily. Without complaining about how my cruel parents keep me under house arrest to everyone from the neighbour’s dog to my 6th grade class teacher (he’s sympathetic, she doesn’t really care).

It began with a trip to Ahmedabad for work (I feel so cool saying that. I went somewhere ‘for work’). Decent weekend but had to stay in a boys hostel at IIMA, not something I’d recommend to any girl, not unless I wanted her to die a bad stinky death. Speaking of which, when I was younger (not little, not a child, younger. youngER!), I always wondered a suitable punishment for a really bad offender would be. Not your regular thief or pick pocket. A really bad man. Strangely enough I always thought tying him or her up and tickling or spanking them would be the worst. In a way that still makes sense to me. There’s nothing worse than the feeling of being completely helpless, knowing you can’t do anything at all. Sure I’d probably replace the tickling with something slightly more painful, but the tying up makes complete sense. Which also reminds me, I read sometime back that the British government was playing around with chemicals that rendered a man’s ’sex organs’ impotent, as a punishment for rape and child molestation. There was a lot of opposition to the scheme by human rights defenders but I was all for it. It was a punishment that really fit the crime. Only in my head, the chemical actually burnt away the ’sex organ’ till it was no longer there. That would be a fitting punishment (Of course, innocent till proven guilty and all that, but once you’re proven guilty, “Off with their umm, well, not heads anyway”)

Ok wake up, I’m done digressing. Just a subject I feel rather strongly about. Anyway, so yes the boys’ hostel was definitely no Taj or Hilton, I didn’t shower for 3 days straight and I have no qualms in admitting it. They had shared bathrooms. Shared between men that is. Big no-no. What is it about men and their complete inability to use a bathroom like human beings! This one looked like people had been playing football in it. Almost everything was broken or out of order. But bathrooms and male domination aside, it was a decent place. I loved how open it was. Every room had at least 5 windows and its own little balcony. I actually got to see stars. Real stars. The outdoors is something I’ve really missed back at home. You’re always inside the house, or in your car, or at a restaurant or movie theatre. There’s never any outdoors. Not like Manchester where you’d have to walk to class in the rain, walk back home after a night out in the freezing cold, sleep with all the windows open in the summer. So nice.

Anyway, so after Ahmedabad, I went on a short trip to Dubai. A couple of my friends happened to be visiting Dubai and it became an impromptu reunion. It was really good meeting up with the old gang. I’d met them all individually after graduation, but everyone meeting together was something else. Old jokes, a lot of do-you- remembers,gossip (who says men don’t gossip), it was brilliant. Not quite the same as university of course. A lot of time was spent discussing market conditions, exchange rates, and the economy, something I don’t ever remember doing when we were students. But I suppose some things do have to change. Sigh. I got me a new laptop while I was in Dubai which means I don’t have to use my mom’s 5 inch Vaio anymore and I might actually be still able to see when I’m 50.

The week after Dubai was my parents’ 25th wedding anniversary, and my sister and I decided to throw them a surprise party. Of course, chicken that I am, I couldn’t keep it to myself and I told my mom about it a couple of days before the party. I was getting nightmares about the caterers messing up and showing up a day early or my parents deciding to take off on a spontaneous trip somewhere on the night (well it ain’t happened yet, but it could someday) and I figured I might as well tell her before I go completely mad. Went off pretty well despite all my paranoia, and I think they had a good time. We went on a 2 day trip to someplace called Kesroli after that with my parents and their friends to celebrate their anniversary and surprisingly enough it wasn’t half bad either. I’d been a bit doubtful about spending 2 days with 14 fifty year olds, but turns out, drunk 50 year olds aren’t all that different from drunk 20 something year olds. Ok well not quite the same, but they’re both fun anyway. It was quite amusing watching these staid conservative men get high and tell dirty jokes

So yea, throw in some friends’ birthdays in between, a lot of hectic days at work, all the preparation after and before the trips, and its no surprise that I’m happy just being home. (The lack of funds owing to all the aforementioned activities might also play a role in this, I’m poorer than a church mouse right now. Or even a regular house rat.) I bought a season of Gilmore Girls from Dubai and I’m half way through that. Seeing that I’m on the verge of turning *gulp* 23, I should probably have outgrown it and moved on to something cooler and more grown uppy but I don’t care. It’s a lot of fun. Makes me want to stay in a small town with a cool name like ‘Stars Hollow’ too. Delhi sounds so boring. Sheesh.

P.S: Today I realized that this t-shirt that I really loved and wore all the time, actually had a very strong sexual innuendo to it and unless I wanted to be thought a male pervert, I would have to stop wearing it. I am still in shock. I’ve had the t-shirt since forever, and I never even dreamt it could mean anything but what it said. I’ve been wearing it to the gym, Costa, grocery shopping, everywhere! *turns crimson with embarassment* These things should come with age restrictions or something! And apparently everyone seems to know what it means! How come I didn’t know!

P.P.S: When I was going to Dubai, I happened to bump into one of the waiters from Costa at the airport. It was quite funny really. He came up to me and said hi coz he recognized me. It took me a minute to figure out who he was coz he wasn’t in uniform. See what I mean about Costa being the friendliest place. *Sings – ‘where everybody knows your naaamee…’*

Of pens and swords

When we were kids, we always bought our books from this shop called Teksons Bookshop. Like buying new books wasn’t exciting enough, the nice people at Teksons also gave you a free bookmark with every book that you bought. Funny bookmarks generally. There was one that said ‘This is where I fell asleep’ which I found really funny then but I don’t quite remember why. There was another that said ‘Does your mother know you’re reading this?’ which I still find quite funny. One of them had Charlie Brown saying ‘The pen is mightier than the sword’. I always found that one really stupid. How can a little pen be worse than a sword? Ooh look at the pen, it might spurt ink all over me *shivers*?!

But alas, today I have realized the truth of ol’ Charlie’s words. See the problem with writing is that it is open to interpretation and it doesn’t always say what you want it to. With a sword, there is generally no misconception. If I use a sword on you, I’m pretty sure I want you to die. Not a big puzzler. (I say generally because there might be the odd, “I was just juggling those, I didn’t realize it would slip and hit you” or “Oops, didn’t mean to leave it lying around like that, hope you didn’t sit on it too hard”). 

Writing ain’t like that. When you write something, it could be read in a number of different ways. That happened to me today, and I ended up hurting someone with what I wrote. Not very nice. It made me realize I need to be careful about what I write. I’m not a big talker coz I always find it easier to write what I want to express. I’m probably going to have to re-think that now. 

P.S: Does anyone know what happened to Teksons? Does it still exist anymore? The branches I used to go to don’t anymore, but I think perhaps a new one opened somewhere. Will have to check it out. It used to be the most exciting place for me when I was little.

Guess who’s going a- travelling? No silly, it’s me! Yup, it’s finally happened. I’m going on a holiday <imagine ‘We’re going on a Summer Holiday’ music here>.

*Jumps around in glee*

P.S: I know I’ve been whining about wanting a holiday for a while now, but as always, I’ve been having doubts ever since I decided. I’m somewhat averse to change (bit of an understatement according to some) so going away always seems a bit scary. But all of that disappears as soon as I step into the airport. I forget any doubts I ever had, and I know that I was meant to travel. Never fails. Just the people, sounds, baggage, flight announcements. Sends a shiver down my spine just thinking about it. So today I went to the Emirates office, and there it was. That familiar feeling again. I love travelling. And flights. And trains. And luggage. And new people. And new places. And Emirates. I should stop now. And flight entertainment. And weather changes. And time changes. Ok, really. And beaches. I LOVE beaches. That’s it. End of list.

Disillusionment

Another whinge about growing pains. (Well it’s my blog! I’ll whine if I want to!)

Warning: Rock On Spoiler ahead. Read at your own risk. Also, I’m very sleepy so do not expect coherence.

Ok, all that out of the way, I went to watch Rock On today. Towards the end, there is this scene where Arjun Rampal is torn between doing what his wife wants him to do i.e. leave on a cruise ship for 6 months for a well paying job (otherwise he just bums around while she does all the work around the house and earns the money) or playing at this crucial concert with his old band who have their last shot at fame. Now it’s a very typical hindi movie scene. The band is playing, he’s on his way to the airport, she’s holding his hand, telling him not to go, he can hear the band on the radio and is itching to go, and then he finally makes the decision, wrenches his hand away from hers and goes with the band. Now just 2 years ago, I would have been ecstatic here (well not ecstatic, it is only a movie, I just mean that movie joy you get when there’s a happy ending) but now I could only think of how he was totally wrong to leave an important job for a concert (even if one of his band mates was dying and it was last wish to play onstage yada yada yada) when he had a son, wife and mother to support. Movie style his wife and son come onstage to support him immediately after to prove that they’ve forgiven him, and many times during the movie they hint that she’s too dominating and controlling but I ask you this, is it fair that the woman sells fish for a living (you gotta love how her look and accent totally change depending on whether she’s talking to the fisherwomen or everyone else by the way. Sophisticated wanna be fashion designer to marathi fisherwoman) while he seems to do nothing but comb his very shiny hair and moustache 15 times a day. Gender roles aside, he should do something to earn his keep! So yes, I was not too happy at the choice he made though seeing that it was a movie and I am a real sucker for happy endings , I should have been. Sheesh! Where is all this practical thinking coming from! Does growing up mean that movie magic (magik? tee hee) is gone?!

And so we become critics

It’s a month later. I’m still in good ol’ Delhi. Been here all this while. Guess the Costa horoscope was wrong. Damn them. I was never a believer of horoscopes and the like really. They’ve been freakishly accurate a couple of times, but then I suppose if you keep predicting rain everyday of the year, you’re bound to be right at least a third of the times. It’s too bad though. Sometimes I think it would just be easier if you knew where you were going to be a year or so later so that you wouldn’t have to waste time thinking about it.

Life’s become too predictable really. Need something to shake it up. Something good of course. Like a holiday (Surprise surprise). Or joining some kind of class. French? Greek? Horse riding? Ooh or maybe I could take up a sport. Football? Swimming? Hmm. Theatre? That might be a good idea actually. I need some confidence and I’ve heard acting’s really good for that. I should really stop spending all my waking hours at Costa or work, and do something more ‘broadening’ instead.

Although Costa can be pretty broadening too sometimes. I love eavesdropping on people’s conversations. You hear such interesting things. Today, there were some NRIs talking about how wherever they went, they had people stopping them to ask if they could get pictures taken with them. I found that hilarious. People don’t do that to movie stars anymore! Why would they want photos with them? Just because they’re Indians living in ‘phoren’ countries?! Another time, I was at a restaurant, and I shamelessly sat and listened to the entire conversation this NRI from the US was having with an aunt from India. Everything she said was so typical. The attempt to identify with her family here, how she had the best time in India but she did want to go back at the end of it, the attempts her parents made at making her and her sister learn to love India,  etc etc. Fun, I tell you!

Actually Costa is more than just interesting people. The treatment I get there is brilliant. Course that might have something to do with the fact that I tend to spend an average of 2 hours a day, every single day at that place. But still! They smile at you like they mean it instead of just a grunt and a nod to acknowledge your presence. With a lot of places you can almost see a thought bubble coming out of their head reading – ‘Oh no, she’s here again’, or ‘Damn, just when I thought she’d had enough coffee to last her a lifetime’. But no, here the bubble says ‘Oh look who’s here’ (in the good sense!) or ‘There’s the reason we order so much of that Frappe stuff every week’ or ‘Hmm, haven’t I seen her somewhere?’ (some of them are new!They learn).

The fact they serve coffee is a big plus. I’d go to places that were a lot worse than Costa as long as they served half decent coffee. Add decent seating (when you’re quick enough to get the couch) and nice lighting and its a pretty good deal overall. Only problem is they’ve started to let just about anyone in these days which is a bit of a problem. You’re sitting there minding your own business, working away at your laptop and then a crowd of mums with screaming kids comes in. Cafes are not meant for toddlers, infants, rowdy school kids, and kitty parties. Get yourself a freaking coffee machine and let the world enjoy its coffee in peace! (I’m not the biggest kid person, you may have realized. In fact, I recently came up with a brilliant new invention that I call the kid bowl. Wait let me show you a blueprint. A detailed business plan will follow. I’m going to be rich!)

My brilliance amazes me!

Anyway, so you get the point. That aside, its top notch! (I’ve been reading a lot of Enid Blyton lately, I’ll be saying tophole and gosh next. Wait, tophole was Chalet School not Enid Blyton. Never mind).

Other than Costa, other brilliant places around Delhi:

Cafe Turtle (GK1): SO nice when you want a quiet lunch by yourself. You can get a book from the bookshop or just borrow one of their’s and spend some nice quality time by yourself.

Coffee Bean (Select Citywalk): Very Starbucks-y. Good coffee, comfy seating, too many people though.

Market Cafe (Khan Market): They have wireless internet and rooftop seating. It’s in Khan Market. You get the point.

That’s all for now folks. Got to go prepare for this presentation I have to give this weekend. Absolutely dreading the thought. Theatre classes. I should really think about it.

Predictions

I just saw my horoscope and it says I’m going to travel in the next few days! *crosses fingers and toes and dances around excitedly*

(It’s the Costa horoscope. It can’t be wrong!)

P.S: I wasn’t able to sleep tonight so I’ve been up watching TV and doing some work. I just realized night is such a comfortable time. You know there’s nowhere else to go, not a lot to do, no one around. When sun rise happens and those pesky birds start screaming their heads off, I always get this kind of sinking feeling. Back to normal life.