Category: Books

Revisiting – The New York Times !!

The United States Of America!

A country, like no other.

If you haven’t been to the USA, You haven’t seen the World.

These were all the words that kept ringing when we thought about applying for our Visas in 2014.

walking into the Visa office, Was like walking into a well-guarded centre, where they thoroughly checked our documents and questioned us like, they had the complete power in their hands in deciding our future ahead.

But, In a way, they had complete authority though in approving and authorising us to travel to the United States.

Getting our Hands-on The USA Visa – Was like a Milestone in Life. (Yeah, We have achieved something in life!)

It’s just that so many Visa get disapproved and it isn’t easy getting a Visa To The USA.

But, I guess what worked for us was our Past Travels.

Airport.

Still Dreading how will we survive this long journey of Twenty odd hours including a layover in Europe.

We have just Seated ourselves on the flight, after all the security checks and Walking around the Airport.

We still don’t know, how to go about this flight journey, eight hours and we will be in Europe and another ten to twelve hours until we make it to The States.

Should we Sleep, Should We Watch Movies?

Anyways! We Decide to Sleep. In order not to get jetlag we must Dose Off on this Journey.

After what looked, like I slept for Days, We reach Zurich Airport.

The Zurich Airport, Is beautiful, The Weather is good and we have a few hours to kill, And we stroll around watching Swiss Airways Flights land, Take off around the Runway, Sipping hot chocolate and having a light meal around.

All was going Well Until our next leg of the journey had entertainment issues.

Yeah! You read that right! Entertainment Issue!

Due to a shift in passengers carrying their Devices like the iPad, Macbooks and iPhones Airlines were now going away with the Entertainment, Infotainment options for Economy Passengers.

United Airlines- Was already Dividing me With America… Leaving me in no State but to sleep again on my Journey, I tried hard to have enough cups of coffee to keep me awake! But for what, I am practically

20000 feet or more above ground. With No Wifi, No Movies, No Television, Sitting on a seat trapped for the next couple of hours…

Just staring at the views outside, I soon fall into a deep sleep.

Now we Are In the USA!!!!

If the Visa Centre was sweating us out!

The immigration Counter was like a serious offence committed.

Since We must have got a USA Visa! But, We Still haven’t entered the USA. So We carefully listen and answer all questions honestly to extent of Letting them know we have carried Pickles & Puffcorn with us in our bags. (Since They have experiences and are well educated, informed about Indian travellers and their needs) 

What Does a Television mean today?

What does television mean today?
When was the last time, you watched television?
Has a television just becomes another screen today?
You have started watching a new series, that everybody has been talking about.
But you don’t want to miss out!
Do you start watching it on your phone first, then continue watching on the tablet and if it’s something binge-worthy do you continue watching it on your television screen to make the most of( The Sound, The effects and the distraction to a minimum) considering the notification from social media have been distracting you now and then to the work emails.
With the Television becoming our new “Big Screen” for movies and series!
Where do the cinema theatres go?
Is going for the movies to the theatres dead? How will the cinemas survive? Will a subscription model be applied to the cinemas as well?
A subscription that allows you to watch an X number of movies in a month with some F&B to go with it.
Since we haven’t had any good films make it on the Over The OTT platform.
All the interesting looking ones are waiting for cinemas to reopen to launch it
But compared to ₹900 a Year, ₹1500 Year and ₹400 a month for mobile devices on a certain platform for family viewing.
Where do the cinemas go?
Will one be spending on the movies.
Mind you even the television seems like a dull experience with the Advertisement coming up frequently.
Where does that leave advertising? Only on News broadcasting channels? Since most of the channels have been playing older episodes today, And more new content coming up on OTT platforms with a wider range of genres and stories available.
Are we all just streaming on different screens?

Coffee Capsules /Pods Available in India

The Pandemic Struck and we were forced into home quarantine,Isolation and with everything under lockdown. Being Home was the option. While I was a regular Nespresso drinker, I was running out of coffee capsules. But, then Indian coffee brands were my only options and thank God! Because they were amazing and well priced. But, My only hitch! If I did not google enough, I would hardly know about them. So, To make others life easy, I am sharing a list of coffee pods/Capsules that are from India or are easily available in India. 

Capsules/Pod Coffee:


Vero: An Italian word for real, True perfect. Is a Mumbai based brand that specialises in coffee Pods/Capsules and machines too. They have flavours like Irish Cream and green Coffee apart from Arabica, Vanilla, Chocolate, Decaf and Coorg. Apart from coffee capsules they also offer Green tea capsules.

Fresh Brew: Another Coffee capsules brand that offers pods. But the interesting part of this brand is they also offer Iced Coffee capsules like the original Nespresso has to offer and apart from this they have Javas, Sumatra, Colombia and many other flavours to offer.

Bonhomia : One of the first brands that I knew of that offers coffee capsules & Machine that’s compatible with Nespresso machines and we’re the first ones to offer flavoured coffees like Hazelnut, Vanilla and Tea capsules too.

Lavazza: The Italian coffee that was once so popular in India. Now offers its capsules for the Nespresso machine.

Davidoff: If You love your instant Davidoff coffee and want to have it from the Nespresso machine they have a couple of options like Rich, Espresso, Fine, Elegance, Prestige and style to choose from.

Coffeeza: A Coffee Brand that not just specialises in Capsules but also has Drip Coffee Bag. They have Ethiopian and a few more options for coffee capsules. They also have machines too.

Some More Of My Writing #5

The Trial Series: Netflix

The Trial:
A Body is found on the riverfront, and a few minutes later, the main accused is arrested. But this is just the beginning of a high drama series. This Italian series is split into eight episodes. once the case is exposed, and this goes on where you realise it’s a one-sided argument, but since this is a courtroom drama, the case soon is getting Balanced, where you don’t know whether the accused will remain in prison or will be set free. This series keeps you glued until the end and makes you witness, how one manipulates evidence and facts to prove one’s innocence. This is a binge-worthy series!!