India Insight

(Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and not necessarily of Reuters)

The excitement on Garima Bajaj’s face is evident as she finally “makes it” to Delhi’s first* Starbucks store after dropping out of the queue twice before.

“Patience is always a virtue. It’s always good to wait,” the management student from Gurgaon said.

It’s been two months since the first Starbucks store opened in Delhi’s Connaught Place. The euphoria is far from over, judging by the queues outside.

“I really like the visual appeal of the place. I am used to the simple arrangement in Barista, CCD (Café Coffee Day) or Costa. When you enter (the store), it’s very impactful,” said Pawni Singh, a Delhi University student.

(Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and not necessarily of Reuters)

New Delhi’s Connaught Place is home to the fourth-most expensive office space in the world, ahead of such usual suspects as New York and Tokyo. If you’re one of the people who has to walk through it every day, the one question you’d ask yourself is: why?

The occupancy cost in Connaught Place is $162 per square foot, compared to $156 per square foot for Tokyo’s central business district in fifth place, according to an annual survey released by global real estate service firm Cushman & Wakefield. In New York city’s Midtown, the equivalent cost is $128.85. (London is most expensive, $262 per square foot, which includes taxes and charges for cleaning and other services)

I will have to respect the Indian Standard Time for once.

I was to meet a friend at five in the evening on the day of the serial bombings in New Delhi. But the meeting got delayed — she could not leave office on time and my office elevator kept me waiting for twenty minutes.

We were chatting about good times together in college, how classmates have done well by themselves and making plans to catch up with other friends at the café inside a popular bookshop when the bomb at Barakhamba Road went off.

I had only read reports of how bombs exploded near cafes as people sat there sipping coffee discussing mundane things in life or shopped for household goods or just walked by. Never had I imagined that one day I would find myself in such a situation.

Three days after the weekend serial bombings that killed 22 people in New Delhi, I find the general atmosphere of the national capital almost abnormal in its normalcy.

One of the blast happened right across the street on which the Reuters office is located.

Colleagues who were working on September 13 told me the impact of the blast at Barakhamba Road shook the building and unsettled flocks of pigeons nesting on rooftops of adjoining high rises.