Mumbai Coffee House

I am rarely on Linkedin. The other day I was on the site to answer a mail and decided to update my profile while there. Which is when I realised that you can only put one job as your 'current job'. This seems a bit archaic and doesn't take into account the realities of today's unstructured world in my opinion. I remember Roshan Abbas taking on his twitter trolls in a Facebook status update the other day. He rebutted those who call him 'jobless' by saying he holds three jobs, if I remember right. That sounded familiar. I didn't know what to put in my profile.  I consult with Karvy Insights, a market research firm. I am an editor at large for the India Food Network. The lead Mumbai critic for EazyDiner. I've joined the NDTV Food as a columnist. I write for publications like MW, Mumbai Mirror and Femina. I work with brands on promotional campaigns. I have my YouTube channel, The Finely Chopped . And it all started with my blog, Finely

Have you noticed how most of the new office complexes in Mumbai don't allow auto rickshaws inside?. Black and yellow taxis too.   If you are using these then you have to get off at the gate and make the long trek in. No such problems if you are in a private car or in air-conditioned cab. Those are allowed in. Though parking is a pain.   Most of these office complexes are not pedestrian friendly and you have to walk in quite a bit to reach your destination. There is no shade or shelter on the walkway. Which means that you are left at the mercy of the blazing sun these days. And it will be much worse when it rains.   Contrast this with Fort, the old CBD of Mumbai. The plethora of lofty trees there and building awnings means that you can always walk in the shade. Even if it rains. Nor does that area get flooded.   Bliss compared to the new office complexes in Saki Naka, BKC, Goregaon and Powai.   And don't even get me started on the lack of good and inexpensi

If you had told me that sunny afternoon in the early 90s when I had dashed off in a cycle rickshaw  after school to pick up a gas cylinder at a godown in Kolkata, which we had booked months back, that today I would just dial the IVR on my cell, punch buttons, and half an later receive a call from a gas cylinder delivery guy to coordinate when to deliver the cylinder at our place in Mumbai I would have said, 'yeah right, next you will say we will all have telephones and can carry them with us!' Incidentally it was Bharat Gas in both cases.  Different centuries. Different cities.