Its been a slow kind of day - meaning I have work pending which Im not doing. Finally the long days and short nights of the past week are catching up. With a weekend of activity ahead with Mom, I dont see much respite till Monday.
So, as I sit on my seat with empty cups of cappuccino beside me, I wonder - modern day people have become too mindless to think; they mostly just follow. Else, what once developed art form, now revered / ridiculed as forecasting tool has no new versions.

What am I talking about? Tea leaf reading of course! Something so innovative, new and so darned weird, has no modern day equivalents! I mean, reading the dregs of tea is definitely a European thing. Yet tea itself is such an old concoction in Asia (China to be precise). It went to Europe only more than a century ago. People were imaginative enough then, to have tea and wonder about ones future depending upon the shape of the broken tea leaves at the bottom of the cup.

Why then, has todays wo/man left innovating? Why not something new about the way and shape of coffee rings left on the cup? What about the foam on the opposite wall of the empty cup? Wont someone please step up and analyse that and tell me my future?
Considering so many coffee drinkers around the world are interested in the occult, how is it that they dont do a little bit of innovation and extrapolation to develop new techniques for todays beverage - coffee? With the internet and the 'world being small' and all that, Im sure they will have enough takers, if not earn a few pennies in the bargain.

Hmm... perhaps this was left for me to create. I now know my true calling...my future (i read it from my 3 empty cups).
It is to drink coffee and predict the future on the basis of the foam marks on the cup! Thus I shall foretell what the future holds for you. Only condition - it has to be cappuccino with lots of foam.

Come to me! The initial 10 readings are free.

there is not much that a basic office coffee-drinker wants. We do not hanker for brews and blends. All we want is a nice cup of caffiene in a presentably format, which suits our palates.
There is a subtle but remarkable difference between coffee that can be drunk and coffee that cannot be touched.
All we want is a coffee that can be touched, daily, on a monthly, if not yearly basis. I dont know why it is so difficult. I make almost the same brew everyday at home, and still enjoy it. year after year after year.

The things that go into instant coffee the world over remain the same. The coffee maker in the hotel rooms world over are a proof of that. You need water, a little coffee (from an off-the-counter jar), sugar and a little milk ( the last two being preferential). Ingredients for wonderful, rejuvinating, coffee. A cup that can last you for hours.

Seemingly, I am wrong. My tastebuds say so. Over and over again. All over India I have not managed to find palatable coffee except after specific instructions, even at a coffee shop known for coffee.

There is this maniacal urge of north and west Indian coffee makers to add oodles of milk and sugar and enough coffee to render it the colour of wheat husk. I had hoped that South India with its penchant for strong Filter Coffee would fare me better, but unfortunately thats not what I got in Hyderabad, in 5 places out of 6. In the 6th they just provided cold drinks - diet at that (which i personally hate. artificial sweeteners ruin my palate for hours). I got the same milky sugary brew. (The one time I got a decent brew, I was unable to drink it, merci my cold)

The Barista near my house is known for its coffee - though standard, but at least standard, coffee. I was totally disapointed yesterday by the lack of coffee in it. Even the waiter was guilt ridden when I sent back my cup to be fortified with more coffee, and lesser milk. Or water. Or whatever that was.

Coming back to office. Initially here we had the nice system where the pantry boy made a cup for you in the microwave. If he wasnt there, you made it for yourself.
however, apparently the load on the pantryboys increased. So, they isntalled a machine. So bad, that it increased the caffience consumption of the average person. I had two cups of great coffee in the whole day, but with the machine stuff, I needed one every few hours at least. Then the pantry boy designed a complicated but master art of creating a normal coffee out of a wicked combination of the foul extracts emanating from the machine.
unfortunately, I cannot expect the same concoction everytime it seems. The pantry boy dulls, and depending on his mood fouls up on the created art, refusing to perfect it to six sigma levels. No matter how I coax and praise him.
I would be happy to have milk, water, sugar and coffee at my disposal to make my particular manna as I want it, and leave my fellow colleague at peace to make his own. But companies seem to conspire against that.
I wonder, what is so expensive about a simple 5 rupee cupfull that can cause Admin departments to try cut budgets? What is so irking about a cup of coffee revitalising and invigorating workers from doing some quality work versus incoherent shit, that top management agrees to these cuts, while asking for 'a little special' concoction for themselves. What is so out of balance about a cup fully consumed even 3 times a day vs. a full cup of the brew thrown away untouched the same number of times? Hey! Employees are even ready to pay for a decent cuppa!

I wonder how bad can it get if the guest in your meeting asks for a cold drink after trying two varieties of your coffee. Some say the presence of toilet paper shows how well the company is doing (Dilbert). I say you can judge simply by the coffee served to you.

Exactly how I dont yet know, because as far as I can see, its always pathetic.

PS - no Rexzilla, I will not comment on the machine provided by your company. Its plain bribery to make employees stick.