Mumbai Coffee House

Didn't go out for breakfast this morning and just wanted to call in for a coffee. So called for a Starbucks cappuccino using the Swiggy app as we often do these days. Delivered in less than 20 min. Hot and frothy. Used Swiggy to order from Sweet Bengal a few days back for a party at home. Quick and headache free. Same when we called from Imbiss and Hangla when friends dropped in. For Candies and Khane Khas, I still use the phone to call the restaurant though they have tied up with delivery apps too Made me think about other apps which have changed our lives for late. Ola and Uber, despite our occasional rants, for sure. Don't need to keep a driver anymore. Rarely take out the car now. Can nap when in traffic than gnash my teeth at the wheel. Also MyDidi these days for temp house help though we use the phone more often than their site but a great service for sure. We don't use grocery or veggie apps that much yet as we get things easily fro...

I live in the suburb of Bandra, home to many who are exploring new journeys in life. In the city of Mumbai, which is considered to be a city of dreams and of opportunities. At most times our Vodafone phone connections (we have two 15 year plus accounts) don't work and nor do the internet connections on them. The Airtel 4G device too is used primarily as a fly swatter now as the internet is barely functional. The MTNL wifi keeps disconnecting. The Tata Photon often naps, specially during the afternoon. I tried You Broadband for a while and disconnected it as it was forever under maintenance. 'Digital India' is a smart tagline indeed and our spin doctors have many such lines. But as I sit at my writing desk desperately seeking some internet connection, it sounds like hot air to me. I can but dream of a time when we will look back at these angst ridden moments and laugh like we do today at the world of Trunk Calls and of going to the neighbour's house to make phone...

There’s no justification to killing men. There’s no justification to killing women. There's no justification to killing grown ups. There can never be any justification to killing children. There's no justification to killing in the first world. Or in the third world. Death knows no religion.   Terrorists won't read Facebook statuses. Nor will politicians or army generals.   But we can make a start to ending this madness by talking. Get to know those who are different from you. Make an effort. Find a common ground. For me it could be food. It could be cinema for you. Dialogue is the only way to break discord, to abandon hate and to embrace happiness.   Sounds philosophical. Is very practical.  

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 ev...

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.

Yesterday I shot with the host of a TV food show for an episode of her show. The episode is going to centre around a couple of food bloggers. The idea of the show apparently came up when the host realised that she was increasingly using blog posts to decide on where to eat rather than mass media reviews. This evening in The News Hour on Times Now Arnab Goswami suddenly looked at the camera and exhorted the audience to go viral and protest against police performing odd jobs for politicians or something like that. 'Go to Facebook and twitter and register your protest' said Goswami. Incidentally while Times Now has a twitter handle, Goswami doesn't. A bit later I was watching Barkha Dutt chat with Salman Rushdie and Deepa Mehta and their conversation suddenly turned to twitter. Rushdie pointed out that for him twitter is the fastest way of finding out what's happening around him. Barkha herself is on twitter and unlike other big TV journalists on Twitter, such ...