DTTDC Coffee Home- a place that retains its charm

I recently visited the DTTDC Coffee Home at Baba Kharag Singh Marg after ten years. The place, best known as Delhi Transport and Tourism Development Corporation's public-private partnership catering, has been an old favourite with my family. Just last week, i came to know that even my grandfather loved this place.

Earlier, this coffee home was not much popular, since the legendary Indian Coffee House was just opposite to it, but post ICS's shutdown speculations in 2009, it has started receiving retired patrons who did not want to see the historical ICH shut down one day. The place is not a glamorous place like Starbucks, but an indigenous coffee outlet. You can actually feel the simplicity and quality in that place. I must mention - the place is a self-service outlet. So don't expect a five star treatment(or five star prices for the matter).

Anyhow, i looked at the menu. There were quite some things, including a burger and uttapam. I decided to go for the safest bet - the Masala Dosa. Took the token, gave the billing person two hundred rupee notes, and got back 65 bucks in change. Then i went to the delivery counter, and showed my token slip. The attendant looked at the token, tore it a little bit(thats the cut you see in the photo), and gave it back. Within 10 minutes, the order was with me. I took it, and went to the table where others were waiting.

And i must say - the food was good. I've had Dosa's in all parts of the nation - punjab, rajasthan, chennai, port blair, delhi, calcutta(or kolkata they'd say now), bangalore , hyderabad and mysore. But this was the first time i could sense all the flavours in one plate. The sambhar was neither too sour, nor too chilly, and had the perfect flavour. Same was the main dosa which was good enough even for a Punjabi(for those who don't know, Punjabi's and people like me have a good appetite, and thin coat dosa's leave us with space for more). The quality of rice used for making the dosa was brilliant, which i still haven't seen in many popular chains like Sagar Ratna or Sravana Bhawan.

Anyhow, the food was highly standardised, and though some people would not find it accoording to their traditional taste(for say, Sambhar in Rajasthan has a lot of Chilli usually, in Chennai is quite sour, in punjab its more thick), i consider it a complete Indian meal - a meal any Indian could eat when he's hungry. Its a meal for the hungry, not a sample for the taste critics. The place is more like a canteen in a government PSU, nothing big about it but still there's something different.

I personally found the place highly satisfying. I still remember, ten years back when i had visited there, the place was jam packed, and people were standing. I was a kid then, and my parents had to wait for sometime before their coffee was served. The new coffee chains might have pulled up the youth, but for some they are a part of their culture. Chains may come and go, but the culture remains there forever...

Pirate Bay marks End of an Era, or maybe the beginning of a new One

I waas going through the net, while i came across the news of Pirate Bay changing its terms of operation. The pirate bay announced that it will no longer host .torrent files, and will provide magnet links.

This comes as a big blow to hardcore Pirate Bay fans(like me). We don't know how will the performance change. Till now, pirate bay had been the one stop place to get the most active torrents. After this, i do expect sites like Demonoid to grow.

Though i personally have a feeling that The Pirate Bay will initially fall a drop, and then bounce back strong. Back in 2009, it had faced a takeover which had initially shaken its users trust, but then regained. Such a movie cannot suddenly topple the giant which has been on multiple government radars for quite sometime.

The announcement can be seem at http://thepiratebay.se/blog/208

Product Review - Nutrifit by Mother Dairy

Well, another one of the products i came across in the market was this one. A probiotic drink by Mother Dairy called Nutrifit. I was with someone else, and was suggested to try this out. So i did.

Nutrifit comes in a small long bottle(the shape quite similar to a flask). Nice labelling makes it a well-designed product.

Nutrifit was launched some years back, and comes in direct competition with Yakult. Aimed for kids, the drink is surprisingly consumed by adults too.

The drink is what we'd say 'dahi' in India(curd in English). It comes in two flavours - Strawberry and Mango. I tried strawberry, and its good. Its very sweet, so people with a sweet tooth will like it.

Anyways, i consumed it in the peak winter season, and i consumed Dahi everyday, but i caught cough the very next day i consumed Nutrifit, mainly because its kept in refrigerators and was chilled. So i'd rather suggest that if you have an average immunity against cold/cough, then you should consume it. For people like me, who are highly prone to them should consume it only in summers. Summers is when most of the people fall to cold/cough. Also, don't consume it in winters, especially in the evening. Thats when infection spreads easily.

Nutrifit is manufactured in the same plant(Pilkhuwa Dairy,UP) from where Mother Dairy has been producing its fermented products for years now. So i suppose its going to have high standards for manufacturing. Being a fermented product, we should be careful about the fermentation levels.

Mother Dairy being a government organisation, is highly trusted. I'd rather suggest Nutrifit instead of Yakult (inspite of the latter being the world leader in probiotic drink).The government does keep a certain standard for their products and do not care about the market dynamics.

IETF comes up with new Fellowship vacancies

I just came across the announcement of IETF taking in new fellows for IETF 84(Vancouver, Canada) and 85(Atlanta, GA).

IETF - the organisation that developed the internet, brings you to come and join their esteemed organisation as a registered fellow. Being a fellow of IETF, you shall have unique benefits that cannot be experienced anywhere.

Internet Society Fellows to the IETF receives the following assistance:

travel, accommodation, meeting registration fees, and a ticket to the IETF social event;
introduction to a mentor from their area of interest to help them prepare for the meeting, network with other experts, and successfully navigate the week-long meeting;
a stipend for incidental expenses; and
a certificate of participation.

Plus, such fellowships does make a CV highly appreciated by data network providers.

The selection criteria for the fellowship is specified here

The basic eligibility for applying for the fellowship is a) bachelors/diploma on computer sciences and b)work experience in IETF standardized work or pursuit of masters/Ph.d in related fields.

For more details, visit http://www.internetsociety.org/what-we-do/education-and-leadership-programmes/next-generation-leaders/ietf-fellowships

The last date for applying to this is March 23, 2012. So hurry up !

How much the world has progressed

I was recently going through the archives of my blog , and i came across a specific post , which actually astonished me. It was one of my early posts of the days when it was my first month on PTB.

Here's the actual link, just in case you'd be curious Dual Sim Phones - Whats next

Some five years back,when i had first heard of dual sim phones, i was very much astonished. It seemed to be a unusual thing. I remember one had to use a specific module that allowed only one sim to be used at a time, and that module thing could be inserted in some handful phone models. A mobile device, which is quite small when compared to a multi-processor system, connecting to the same tower to register two different Subscriber Identity Modules(SIM's). Now, it all seems like a normal thing for all of us.


Also, i would also like to thank Mr Bhaskar of BookmySalon. If is wasn't for him, i would have never rediscovered the past !