Starbucks

Starbucks. 

Yes, the one that has opened in Mumbai at Horniman Circle (Please forgive the taxi walas for calling it Hornyman or Honeymoon or Hanuman Circle).  Had seen tweets & Instagram images of the frenzy to welcome Starbucks with open arms on the opening day, but a particular video just showed how ridiculous it had actually got. People standing in queue for two hours for 200 bucks coffee. Ok, I know it is Starbucks coffee, but seriously two hours!! You could watch a movie, read a good book or magazine in that time! Come on, Bombay... city that runs, hops & rushes against time. Had anyone insisted on waiting for even one fourth of that time in lodging complains against local issues, those potholes & what not that ails this city; would we? Not really, we are so busy, who would spend thirty long minutes for things that really matter. Wasting hours waiting outside a coffee shop just shows how insecure we are & how ridiculously important peer pressure is.

But it's Starbucks - Yes it is Starbucks, but it is your inner impluse to "Check-in" before the weekend ends, the peer pressure to have registered your mark on FourSquare, a click on Instagram & of course, a status update on Facebook, not to mention the incessant tweets. Imagine what this city would turn into if all would be so active during elections, or to raise their voice against something, to demand for right to information, to get the freaking auto meters fixed for once & for all. 

And then finally, if you say - it's coffee - if you really know coffee so well, participate in a coffee cupping which requires more skill than wine tasting and real luxury coffee isn't as cheap as the usual ones with a fancy brand. 

The Firefly

The first time I saw a real firefly, in March 2012... it was at a surprising place...


Last night, as I lay sleepless
In the summer dark
With window open to invite a breeze,
Softly a firefly flew in
And circled round the room
Twinkling at me from floor or wall
Or ceiling, never long in one place
But lighting up little spaces...
A friendly presence, dispelling 
The settled gloom of an unhappy day.
And after it had gone,
I leftThe window open,
just in case
It should return

- Ruskin Bond

The Sea & the Land

Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure. Consider also the devilish brilliance and beauty of many of its most remorseless tribes, as the dainty embellished shape of many species of sharks. Consider, once more, the universal cannibalism of the sea; all whose creatures prey upon each other, carrying on eternal war since the world began.

Consider all this; and then turn to the green, gentle, and most docile earth; consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself? For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half-known life. God keep thee! Push not off from that isle, thou canst never return!

Herman Melville in Moby-Dick

link: http://literaryjukebox.brainpickings.org/page/5

Books!!

Carl Sagan's quote on books, illustrated by ZenPencils