Evening Walk-Coffee-Entrepreneurship-Jhamel

Its been six  months since my last post and i am sorry to have kept u waiting for so long. Lots has happened in the last 6 months, watched a few movies (Haider being the latest and the best so far), partied with old friends (with 'Queen of GoodTimes' Bina Shrestha having moved to Stockholm we have to  wait for her to b bck in town to rock the party) , made new friends on Twitter and started a not for profit with them (Nepal Policy Center : a public policy think tank), shifted office after not being able to sustain the operating cost of the old place, started on  this year's session of MGTS 402 (Entrepreneurship Development course i teach at Kathmandu University School of Engineering) and more importantly have sustained the habit of staying off my Poison Food 'Soda Pringles aur  Pastry' (except for that one piece of Swiss Roll i stole from the freeze when i was home alone this Dashian/Durga Puja) . Can't say the same for my exercise/ work out sessions though. Have been on and off the treadmill and the walks . 

As the end of the year 2014 draws close I am back on the treadmill and evening walks. This evening on my usual walking route around Jhamel i stopped to pick up  coffee at a random Coffee Shop .  While i was waiting for my latte an idea stuck me . I loved to drink coffee while walking around Jhamel and the number of coffee shops in this route had gone up. So i thought how about visiting new coffee shops on my evening walks  and doing  a brief review of the place in this blog. While at it how about doing an interview with the proprietor if i can meet him/her with some questions about their Entrepreneurial spirit and business idea. Basically giving me some real life material for my class as well as content for the blog doing something i love (drinking coffee)  while at  something i need to do ( exercise my legs ).   Sounds like a good deal , lets see what do i do about it.

I picked this evenings coffee at Craftmandu Coffee shop , recently opened and located right at the Jhamsikhel junction. When i entered  i was the only customer and had to wait about 10 mins for my latte .  While i was waiting i looked around and found  lots of handicraft items for sale. As well as some clothes (don't know if was all pashmina ). An expat came in and picked up few craft items but no coffee.   They used Mustang Coffee beans (250gms pack was on sale for Rs.440) . The ambiance and seating   was good but sadly no music playing although i saw a music system. I took my cup of coffee (i swear nothing else) and got back to my walk. There was no branding or logo of the shop on the cup.  The Coffee tasted good but as they did not give me a sleeve for the cup the heat made holding it a bit uncomfortable. The hot contents of the cup were welcome as it was a chilly evening .

 I finished the coffee as i passed the Jawlakhel Football ground. As i made my way past the DFID office i spotted a few coffee shops in that area as well so lots of options. On reaching Dhobighat i found a UMN vehicle parked infront of KISC and that got me thinking who could it be . As i moved ahead i was about to cross the Futsal ground when i said to myself how about checking if there is anyone from UMN playing there (i recalled a few photos on facebook posted by my ex-colleagues at UMN  playing futsal ). I was glad to find some old faces( but young men n women) from UMN playing a game. They had just finished the finals of the intra team futsal match and sadly my old team (Operations Team) had lost the match to the Programs Team. After saying hello to them i was back to my walk heading straight home.

On my next walk i will try and get that interview i talked about.

O b4 i end let me  give you the lyrics of the song  whose words n soft music stayed with me even after  my walk this evening .
"Hannah Hunt" by VAMPIRE WEEKEND

A gardener told me some plants move
But I could not believe it
Till me and Hannah Hunt
Saw crawling vines and weeping willows
As we made our way from Providence to Phoenix

A man of faith said
Hidden eyes could see what I was thinking
I just smiled and told him
That was only true of Hannah
And we glided on through Waverley and Lincoln

Our days were long our nights no longer
Count the seconds, watching hours
Though we live on the US dollar
You and me, we got our own sense of time

In Santa Barbara, Hannah cried
And missed those freezing beaches
And I walked into town
To buy some kindling for the fire,
Hannah tore the New York Times up into pieces

If I can't trust you then damn it, Hannah
There's no future, there's no answer
Though we live on the US dollar
You and me, we got our own sense of time
   ------

More Soon,
Brahma