Voyaging Together

Among one of the few Reality Shows I follow, MasterChef Australia is my favorite. In an endeavor to groom great chefs, the show lays stress on multiple factors which make eating food an experience including things like plating, the use of the right ingredients to decorate the dish etc.  The entire concept of plating and presentation is not just limited to TV shows now. 80% of the reviews  on the popular food blog website – Zomato,  lay great emphasis on the ambience of the place (Moreover ambience is contributes significantly to the high food bills). Even when I think of my favorite food, not only do I know how it should taste but exactly how it should look. What is the correlation between well-presented food served in great ambience with the taste?  Although there has been enough research to show how sense of smell and taste are intertwined and the interactions between smell and taste enhance the perception of food, there is no such...

Life has been rather kind to me. For the first 25 years, I've had the luxury of driving (and being driven around) in my own car. It all started to change when I moved out of the comfort of Chandigarh to Mumbai, where even if you own a car - at times it is just more convenient to hire a cab. The first few months in Mumbai were best described as a nightmare. I landed up totally unprepared, in the midst of the legendary Mumbai monsoons. Clubbed with the arrogance of auto drivers not willing to travel a short distance and the radio cabs which were either overbooked or often cancelled last minute - I began missing the small luxury that is a car, very much. Things were looking better a couple of months down the line with a brand new Honda at my disposal, but Uber launching in Mumbai was even bigger savior. The time it was launched, we literally had free credit and rides all the time, that the price never really bothered me. People who've stayed in Mumbai can very well...