I remember my first visit to the United States over a decade ago. Landing from my small, bustling hometown of Meerut, India, I was instantly awestruck. The silence, the systematic flow of traffic, the lack of honking—it was a world engineered for flawless human convenience. Everything was neat, clean, and in order . For nearly a year, I was hypnotized. I praised this country for its efficiency, its cleanliness, and, notably, its lack of stray animals . Where were the dogs, the cows, the insects that are a normal part of life back home? The US, I thought, was truly a superior model of civilization. My clothes never even collected dust; it seemed the entire landscape was sterilized. But as the years passed, the hypnosis began to fade. I started asking a darker question: What is the price of this perfect order? The Cost of the Empty Road My initial praise for the US was based on what I didn't see: no stray animals, no swarming insects, no dust. I realized this absence wasn't a s...
Raise your hand if you don't like to eat out! If anyone claims to be so, than it is certainly not true, for there wouldn't be so many restaurants coming up. I don't remember a weekend when me and my wife had food at home! Well, it is certainly nothing to be proud of, but this is how we are. This past weekend we camped at Cafe 21 restaurant at Shri Anandpur Sahib to subside our hunger for diverse food. After juggling through the menu we picked up two items, this is a drill in which 99% of the time I come first. I should say my wife come second, not the last, to avoid her from obvious shame!! Anyways, we picked up a paneer grilled taco and veg. burger. So after ordering the stuff it barely took 5 minutes for the first dish to arrive on our table. I would call this ETA to be under standard test conditions as there was none else dining at that time. The first item to come on our table was the veg burger, and I must say that I liked how it was served. I mean the plate was cute...