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| STARBUCKS INDIA |
"It is perhaps the most elegant, beautiful,
dynamic store we've opened in our history," chief executive Howard Schultz
said in an interview on the occasion of the opening of Starbucks’ first flagship
Indian store, in the exclusive Horniman Circle neighbourhood of south Mumbai
(also known as SoBO for those of us in the know!). The news was greeted with
excitement as punters travelled over two hours from the suburbs of North Bombay
to be present at the historic moment of the opening and to get their share of
the free coffee samples. There goes the
neighbourhood thought I, the cynical Non Resident Indian on reading this.
Just a few hours earlier I had queued up at the second restaurant from Dishoom
– a Bombay Café in London, in Shoreditch (London’s Horniman Circle equivalent.)
Affectionately nicknamed D2, this café-restaurant is uniquely modelled to
capture the charm of old-worldly Irani Cafés—complete with slow rotating ceiling fans, stained mirrors
and sepia family portraits—once common in Bombay, but now fast giving away to
malls, designer stores and of course the likes of Starbucks. I knew my young
cousins in Bombay would welcome Starbucks with open arms. Heaving a sigh of
relief they would make a bee-line for its air-conditioned sanctuary which
offered an escape from the prying eyes of neighbours, parents and
well-meaning-aunties as they dated the boy from chemistry class in college,
gossiped with girlfriends on the latest Bollywood heartthrob and tweeted tips
to each other on how to fill in MBA or Engineering application forms. All this over
frothy caramel frappuccinos and tamarind peanut chicken
calzones. I had done the same many moons ago, when a bunch of friends and me
had plotted to break away from our day jobs and start a youth magazine, at an Irani
Cafe in Prabhadevi accompanied by
many cups cutting-chai & bun-maskas. You’ve
come a long way baby, or perhaps not. Sat in that old fashioned Bombay Café
I had dreamt of countries around the world, wondering what lay out there in the
big beyond, and how to break away from being another brick in the wall. Would I have the courage to follow my heart?
I had wondered then. Fifteen years later here I was in a Bombay Café albeit
of another kind, with somewhat similar décor—in a completely different part of
the world, one which I had never thought I would ever call home—still wondering
how to step off the carousel, not become another corporate cog and find
the courage to follow my voice. The more things change the same, the more they
remain the same. As for Starbucks, well as a comment by Puneet Tandon, on the
Hindustan Times sums it up: “A minute of silence for all the CCD (Café Coffee
Day) outlets in Mumbai. SoBos can rejoice. Are you ready to go and have overly
priced coffee to look cool? Yayy !”
About Laxmi Hariharan (in my words): Though born in India, wanderlust drove me
out of my home country, and I lived in Singapore and Hong Kong before being based
in London where I now live. I am inspired by Indian mythology. It was in
embracing my roots that I found my voice. When not writing, I enjoy long walks
in the woods and growing eye catching flowers. My debut novel The Destiny of Shaitan is available on
Amazon http://tiny.cc/szqsew. Reach me here:
Twitter at https://twitter.com/#!/laxmi
Website http://www.laxmihariharan.com/
Good reads: http://www.goodreads.com/laxmi
If you like my writing, and would like to be profiled on my
blog as part of my Reader Avatars
series, then please do email me: laxmihariharan@yahoo.com
