So here's the thing with day-to-day life in India. Everything takes longer than it should. And contrary to what we actually see in our work with dynamic entrepreneurs, day-to-day it feels like no one wants your business.
Take this morning. Being Friday, I decide to splurge on a cappuccino to help me get through the final push on the report I'm working on around private sector innovations in maternal health.
I head to Costa, perhaps the fanciest coffee place in Delhi that does not involve hookas. It's 9:50am and I know from the Harvard interview I recently conducted there that it opens at 9:30am.
Except when it doesn't. Like today.
"We open at 10am. Please have a seat."
"But you always open at 9:30."
"Today we open at 10 o'clock."
Of course.
"Please have a seat."
"That's okay, I prefer to stand."
I wait (standing), all of ten seconds, when the woman I was just speaking with suddenly appears behind the register and asks what I want. Meanwhile, all the others rush to make my cappuccino.
(That's the other thing about India. It makes people extremely uncomfortable if you just stand there.)
You'd think I'd be happy but Tyler and I can never let the inconsistency go.
"What changed?" I ask.
My question (in both English and Hindi) gets ignored.
Starbucks is sure to make a killing here when it enters the market this summer.
Take this morning. Being Friday, I decide to splurge on a cappuccino to help me get through the final push on the report I'm working on around private sector innovations in maternal health.
I head to Costa, perhaps the fanciest coffee place in Delhi that does not involve hookas. It's 9:50am and I know from the Harvard interview I recently conducted there that it opens at 9:30am.
Except when it doesn't. Like today.
"We open at 10am. Please have a seat."
"But you always open at 9:30."
"Today we open at 10 o'clock."
Of course.
"Please have a seat."
"That's okay, I prefer to stand."
I wait (standing), all of ten seconds, when the woman I was just speaking with suddenly appears behind the register and asks what I want. Meanwhile, all the others rush to make my cappuccino.
(That's the other thing about India. It makes people extremely uncomfortable if you just stand there.)
You'd think I'd be happy but Tyler and I can never let the inconsistency go.
"What changed?" I ask.
My question (in both English and Hindi) gets ignored.
Starbucks is sure to make a killing here when it enters the market this summer.
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