Chp 690. Pool Party in Pune

So let's add a little bit of glamour to my December blog update :)

The other day, I took my three nieces Tuli, Remruati and Sangsangi to an afternoon roof-top Pool party at The O-Hotel, Koregaon Park.

(sorry boys, they are all taken, no vacancies)

It was a special event organized by renowned DJ Abhishek Mantri and my good friend DJ Rajbeer, in collaboration with the amazing Kirri Pirri who also hosts STARIANS NITE (Shooting Star Event). Since it was a trial run, it was not a public event and entry was based on invitations only. It was truly an honour to be included in the guest list (I'll be blogging about Starians nite events later).

The roof top of The O-Hotel, known as "Addah" lounge, was beautiful.

Wide breathtaking open ambience and yet cozy with a sense of solace. The weather that day was also perfect, with a slight drizzle now and then giving rise to a wonderful aroma of petrichor and cool gusty breeze gently blowing across our hair.

The view from the top -

Met the co-organizer Kirri Pirri. A truly awesome dude indeed. I have attended most of his parties the last couple of months.

We sat down to have some snacks and drinks. There was also a brunch buffet at the corner, but we didn't opt for it as we had already eaten. The buffet was around 2000 per head and the variety of food available looked impressive, though I didn't observe it closely since we weren't planning to go for it anyway.

By the way you can click on all images to enlarge to a new tab/window. If you're browsing from your Facebook mobile app, it will open the link with the default In-App FB browser. Click on the three dots on the top right corner and select "Open in Chrome" (or any other browser you have). You can also change your FB settings to always open links using a different browser.

We took a few more candid photos around our table.

DJ Rajbeer was rocking the scene with his music. The musical theme of the pool party was Deep House, Tech House and Funky House. Or as we used to call it back in the good 'ol days, "untz untz untz untz" :D

We ordered a plate of Tandoori Fish, which disappeared in a matter of minutes as it was so good :) The fries were also scrumptious.

Kirri Pirri had earlier created a Facebook group consisting of all the invited guests. Suddenly somebody posted a photo in that group of us eating, lolz :D

I looked around and immediately saw Karma and Mike at the other table. I took a pic of their table and sent it to the group as well.

They laughed as they received the images and we waved at each other. We had seen each other many times at various Shooting Star events though we had actually never spoken to each other. That was the day we spoke to each other for the first time and became good party buddies since then. :)

We headed out to the poolside once we were done with food as my nieces wanted to take a few pics here and there…

My nieces also taught me how to take proper photos, like holding the phone from a lower position with a slightly slanted angle so as to give a better picture. See, I keep learning new things every day!

Mike was slyly taking a photo of me taking a photo of the girls from the other end of the pool :D

And oh, we all experienced a very strange phenomenon that day… all our hairs were flying up in the air! Maybe because of the rain, some kind of low atmospheric condition was created or high electrical static field generated, because this was how all our hairs were that day (and it was not because of the breeze) -

Strange indeed. Well I guess we can literally call this event a hair-raising event, lolz.

After some time, Aman appeared on the scene and Kirri Pirri asked us to pose for official Shooting Star events photos. We happily obliged :D

"Aman's Photography" is the official media partner for all Shooting Star events, and trust me, his pics are really good. I'll publish some of his work when I cover "Starians Nite" in another blog post.

All of us posed for two photos each, one with the Starians banner and one without.

Soon it was the turn of us guys too… :)

The official pics came out so well! Nice job Aman.

We spent some more time clicking pics around the pool…

Some pics not from my Oneplus 3

Yeah you can see how much fun they had with their selfies… I miss being young sometimes, because of how easily we were pleased with life…

We headed to the dancefloor after that. DJ Rajbeer kept rocking the crowd, and soon he was replaced by DJ Abhishek Mantri. I didn't take any pic of us dancing though, because I was busy dancing, duh :P

We headed back to the pool one more time once we were all exhausted from dancing. The afternoon roof-top party was only till 5 PM so it was almost time for us to leave…

There was also a birthday cake cutting occasion, to which all of us sang along too, and afterwards they distributed the cake to all the guests :) Happy birthday once again, oh unknown friend, thanks for the delicious cake.

The girls were fascinated with the way the water was distorting their legs :P

Even Kirri Pirri joined in on the fascination! :D :D :D

Last group pics before leaving…

As we left Addah, we headed to the other side of the balcony which was empty. By the way, we asked a receptionist whether we're allowed to go to that section, and she replied to us in Mizo and said yes :D It feels so nice when you suddenly meet a fellow Mizo now and then. We exchanged pleasantries quickly and headed out to the balcony.

At the other section, once again my nieces utilized my Oneplus 3's amazing camera again and I became the cameraman for the umpteenth time that day.

And so with that ended a memorable afternoon at The O-Hotel.

I'll cover more of Starians Nite and Shooting Star events in a later post. As for now, if you have any enquiry regarding such events, feel free to contact Kirri Pirri at his Facebook page.

So until the next pool party, cheers mes amis.

Chp 689. Zomato's response to my blog post

What a beautiful start to a new month!

So two days ago I wrote a blog post about Zomato and Swiggy [Chp 687. Moving from Zomato to Swiggy] where I compared the two of them and talked about why many of us Zomato customers were switching to Swiggy.

One of the main reasons I talked about was that many of us from office were fed up of having to collect our Zomato order from the main-gate because the delivery boys didn't have proper ID cards to enter our Corporate Center.

I also mentioned that my blog post wasn't going to make any impact because I'm just an insignificant fish swimming in a large ocean of the Food Tech Industry which is expected to cross a market worth of $540 Bn soon.

Well surprise surprise, yesterday I received an unexpected call from Zomato main office!

Apparently they had all gone through my blog post (!), and even cross-checked with my Zomato account because otherwise there was no way they could have known my phone number.

We spoke for around 30 minutes, where they explained the reason behind all the points I mentioned in my post. We actually went through my blog post point by point, lolz. They assured me that Zomato had recently acquired their own delivery fleet called Runnr and soon there will be a big change in Zomato orders not just in terms of delivery service but also packaging as well. They also told me that since I have placed more than 500 Zomato orders, I wasn't just a customer but a part of their family :)

It was a really good talk, and after we hung up, it felt good to know that I'm not as insignificant as I thought I was. Yippeee.

And then today, Zomato paid me a surprise visit at my office!

They presented me with a Gift Hamper to show their appreciation for my blog post.

Apart from that, Masoom Kakar, Key Account Manager (KAM) gave me her personal number and told me that I should reach her directly the next time I face any inconveniences with Zomato! Wow. It feels so nice to be taken care of. I love the gifts they gave me today, t'is definitely a season of giving and sharing :)

So the Gift Hamper includes a personal handwritten letter from Zomato…

Three extremely quirky food-related posters…

Haha I love this one! It's like, they could read right through my mind, lolz. This one is so going up on my bedroom wall :D

A vaderful poster…

And last but not the least, a Zomato coffee mug and a badge.

Thank you so much for these freebies, Zomato.

You know a company is bound to succeed by the way they treat their loyal customers. I mean, family members :)

Hoping to see some of the points I mentioned in my previous post quickly implemented in Pune too (that is, the activation of logistic service through Runnr delivery fleet). Until then, cheers everyone.

Chp 688. To the Nuam

Yesterday, my blog friend and poet virtuoso Sanga Says baffled us all with his status update that was automatically translated. We had a ball in the comment section. Today I decided to pen down some thoughts based on his update :)

Inspired by a poet. To the Nuam.

on a Hill

faraway

stood a place, where we used to Talk

about hymning along

when you read familiar lines...

That's the place, where I await

your arrival

with a poem

penned just for you

written in angst

across the lines

with no limit

between the inner lines

if you permit

the inner line permit

as Westerners descend upon Lengpui

flashing their ILPs

one sap, two sap,

everywhere, sap2,

off to their destination paradise

a soul mate in their arms, for eternity

I too yearn for that moment

to arrive

at my destination

and embrace you in totality

a nawm em dan tur chuh!

to the nuam, to the nuam,

that's where I want to go with you

to the Nuam.

Chp 687. Moving from Zomato to Swiggy

[EDIT: Zomato responded to this post the very next day! Once you have read this, please read this follow-up post]



Yeah. A pretty bold headline. Like it's ever gonna make any impact on either Zomato or Swiggy at all, lolz.

Two giant food delivery companies, both having raised more than $150 Mn each, with a valuation of $1.4 Bn for Zomato and $1.2 Bn for Swiggy (if the deal with Alibaba comes through), will surely not be affected in any way because one random hungry Mizo working in Pune decided to order his morning Masala dosa from Swiggy rather than Zomato. :D

(this is where Luis Fonsi suddenly appears on the scene and sings - INSIGNIFICANTO) :P

But regardless of that, the topic of whether Zomato or Swiggy is better had always been regularly discussed among my group of friends and fellow foodies. Nobody talks about Food Panda anymore, lolz. Food Panda is pretty much like Gendry who rowed his boat and was never seen or heard of again (until the latest season).

Saying Zomato is better or worse than Swiggy is subjective. Their service differs not just from city to city but from locality to locality within the same city. I've had bad experiences with both, and many great experiences with both as well. Also, most of the bad reviews are about a particular restaurant's food quality, which has nothing to do with Zomato or Swiggy.

I think I have enough street cred to talk about my experience with Zomato because as of today, 29th November 2017, I have placed exactly 575 orders using their app.

Ok I am just a level 1 Foodie because I don't write food reviews or upload pictures on Zomato, I do that on my blog instead, as you can see from my previous post or the "Adventures of Tubby" series.

To me, UI (user interface) is a very important criterion for a good app, probably because of my digital advertising and web design background. I. JUST. CANNOT. DIGEST. an app with horrible UI design.

Back in 2012-13 when all these food ordering apps started popping up, we were using TinyOwl to order food. I remember Food Panda and Zomato had clunky UI and so I never used them. And then came Faasos who had this really clean UI and it became my regular food ordering app. I even became an ICU member (Intensive Chicken User).

Thank you @faasos for the ICU (Intensive Chicken User) badge and free rolls coupons! :D #faasosspeak pic.twitter.com/9CQ1Lq3Y

— Kima (@Mizohican) January 18, 2013

It was in 2015 that Zomato launched a separate app solely for ordering food, and their new sleek UI design and UX completely swept me off my feet, and I have been on Zomato ever since. But now, I started using Swiggy more regularly. Here are my personal comparisons between Zomato and Swiggy and why I decided to switch loyalty.

1. DELIVERY TIME

I think we all know the main difference between Zomato and Swiggy. Through Zomato, you can order food from a list of restaurants they have tied up with, and the restaurant will deliver your order to your address. Swiggy on the other hand has its own fleet of delivery boys who personally go to the restaurant and deliver your order to your location.

Because of this, Swiggy has a lesser average delivery time. Now, I am not finicky about delivery time, I don't mind if my order is late by 10-20 minutes, but there had been a couple of times when my Zomato order took more than an hour beyond the estimated delivery time. Earlier, Zomato used to give me free Zomato credits whenever that happened, so I didn't mind much, but lately, all they gave me was their "apology", and that kinda left a bad taste in my mouth, especially since I am such a regular customer.

Zomato 0 : 1 Swiggy

2. MINIMUM ORDER

This is another USP of Swiggy. No minimum order amount. Probably works well with the student community. As for me, this really doesn't matter because my Zomato order always exceeds the minimum amount, lolz. Yeah, I love food :P So this is a draw for both.

Zomato 1 : 2 Swiggy

3. COST AND OFFERS

This is another sector me and my jobless colleagues at work tried to research on. We compared the cost of the same dish from the same restaurant (final cost after GST, packaging and delivery charges) taking a sample space of around 20 restaurants, and eventually came to the conclusion that it is inconsistent. Some restaurants were a bit cheaper at Zomato, while others were a bit cheaper at Swiggy. So again, it's a draw.

Zomato 2 : 3 Swiggy

4. SPECIAL TREATS

Zomato wins hands down in this sector. It costs just 250 bucks annually to subscribe to this and you get free desserts from selected outlets. For a regular customer, this is an extremely good offer. Looking at Swiggy to reciprocate this :)

Zomato 3 : 3 Swiggy

5. EXCLUSIVENESS

There are a few outlets marked as "exclusive" at Zomato. But again, I could see some of those so called Zomato exclusive restaurants at Swiggy as well, lewlz. Maybe those restaurants are breaking an agreement they signed with Zomato, I don't know, but they are definitely not that exclusive. Also there had been many times when I ordered from Zomato and the restaurant delivered the food with a Swiggy or Food Panda packaging :D Overall, Swiggy covers a much larger base here in Koregaon Park and Kalyani Nagar, Pune, with many restaurants available at Swiggy that aren't at Zomato. Even though this is subjective and may not be like that at other locations, I give this round to Swiggy.

Zomato 3 : 4 Swiggy

6. CUSTOMER SERVICE

This is where Zomato shines. They have a very reliable customer service feature who promptly responds to all my queries or complaints. I have read some reviews saying Zomato customer service is bad, but frankly for me, I have never experienced that. Maybe it's because I have 500+ orders and hence treated differently by a senior staff, I don't know, but I am extremely satisfied with their customer service.

Swiggy on the other hand… ooh boy… So when I first started using Swiggy, it was a long time ago when they had tied up with Tapzo app. I registered from Tapzo back then. Years later, I installed the Swiggy app on my phone, and somehow my number was still registered, and my name was automatically saved as "TAPZO USER". I couldn't change it and requested their customer service to change it many times. Finally on my fourth or fifth request, they changed my name. But apparently that changed only on my device. On the delivery boy's device, my name is still "TAPZO USER" as of today, which always creates confusion when I order from office.

Zomato 4 : 4 Swiggy

7. ORDER TRACKING

I love Swiggy for this. If you're just jobless and eagerly waiting for your order to arrive, sometimes it feels good to be preoccupied by just watching the small Swiggy scooter move towards your location, pretty much like how you can track your Ola or Uber ride. Zomato on the other hand, delivers very randomly. Sometimes I receive my order 30 minutes late, and sometimes 30 minutes early! (which may be good, except I order from office and there are times when I'm stuck in a meeting and I order lunch, planning the time so that the ETA of food coincides with the end of the meeting).

Zomato 4 : 5 Swiggy

8. PAST ORDERS

Zomato shows how many orders I have placed through their app till today, as you can see from the image on this post. Swiggy doesn't have that feature. And hell no I'm not gonna freaking count all my past orders manually one by one. Ain't nobody got time for dat! Also, the lastest Zomato app update shows your past order from each restaurant, a feature I so badly needed.

Zomato 5 : 5 Swiggy

9. UI Design

As I mentioned earlier, Zomato blew me away with their UI design. But soon Swiggy came with an even better UI, where one can see images of some of the dishes served. That was when I slowly started using Swiggy more. In the latest update, Zomato too has this feature. In fact, the latest Zomato app UI design is almost a xerox copy of Swiggy. For that, I'm gonna give this round to Swiggy.

Zomato 5 : 6 Swiggy

10. BEVERAGES

For some strange reasons, most of the restaurants don't serve beverages through Swiggy, but the same restaurants do from Zomato. Also, there are still a number of bugs on Swiggy. For example, one of my favorite South Indian restaurants on Swiggy is Madras Coffee House (which isn't there on Zomato). From the Swiggy app, I cannot select any beverages including filter coffee, but at the checkout page, it asks me if there are any extra things I want to add, like filter coffee. From THERE only can I select filter coffee, lolz.

Zomato 6 : 6 Swiggy

It may seem like a draw, but Zomato won on most of the points that really matter, and this may look like a big win for Zomato, EXCEPT for one very important reason, in fact the most important reason of all on why I have migrated to Swiggy from Zomato –

11. DOORSTEP DELIVERY

THIS is the reason why Swiggy has won me over, why I hardly order from Zomato anymore. From the 500+ orders that I have placed through Zomato, at least 70% are from office. I work at a large Business Center, where other floors are occupied by other companies as well. Hence, entry is very strict and we have to show our IDs to the security at the gate before entering the premises.

Now being a foodie, I love experimenting and ordering from different restaurants. Most of these restaurants from Zomato send their delivery boys who DO NOT have proper IDs with them. And so I have to leave my office floor and go down 16 floors and walk all the way outside to the main gate to collect my food and then return to my office. The four elevators are also quite busy at this time as it is lunch hour and employees from different companies are going up or down to the 7th and 10th floors where the two common cafeterias are located.

So yeah, you can feel my frustration, right? But when it comes to Swiggy, all their delivery boys have proper IDs and they come deliver my lunch right at my office floor without me having to go anywhere.

That is why I have started using Swiggy more regularly. All my friends in office (and I'm sure the people from the other companies in our building) have all switched to Swiggy as well because of this. This is something Zomato needs to fix asap, otherwise they're just going to keep losing more and more loyal customers.

Some of you might consider this last point trivial, like, "Hey Kima, why don't you just suck it up and walk to the main gate to collect your lunch?" but hey, at the end of the day, I'm spending my hard-earned money for a "service", and when a competition is offering me a much better and more convenient service, I have the total freedom to shift to that new service, right? :) Unless of course you're generous enough to pay for my Zomato lunch every day, then I surely don't mind walking outside to collect my food :P

If Zomato fixes this issue (maybe instruct all their affiliated restaurants to have their delivery boys carry proper IDs, or at least mention in the app which restaurants have delivery boys with ID cards), I think a lot of us will get back to using it…

So what about you? Which is your current favorite food ordering app, Zomato or Swiggy?

Chp 686. Food on Art

So I received a few comments regarding my previous post on Mizo Chilli about the food I displayed - People really liked my table runner. The food went well with the background, they said. I agreed.

For those of you who came in late, I bought that table runner and placemat set from iCandy, a shop run by my good friend and recent mother Stephanie Halliday, who is still figuring out how to act more mature and adult than her newly born daughter Isabelle :P

You can read about her shop here - Chp 657. Get some sweet stuff at iCandy.

Even though I live alone as a bachelor, I try to make my apartment as family-like as possible. Though I eat all my food in my bedroom slumped on my bed while watching my favorite TV shows, whenever I have guests, I try to make sure we eat properly on the dining table, just like a typical normal Mizo family :)

When my mom and niece visited me a few months ago, my mom was truly impressed with my dining table setting. She was like, OMG I am so freaking proud of my boi, he is the bestest son in the whole wide world, my son is lit AF.

I mean, she never said any of those stuff, but I could feel it, you know :P

 

And of course when mom left, my other family here in Pune would come over, and the way we utilized the table runner was a little bit different… :D

Hey, at least we're doing it together on the table :D

I for one firmly believes that a family that eats (or drinks) together, stays together. That is why I always insists we dine together at the same time. Sitting down and eating together just makes everyone feel so much closer IMHO, rather than people just eating buffet style at any time they like separately.

My brother from another mother Gary Hrahsel would occasionally come to help me cook a weekend meal. See how we had set up the table properly, you won't believe this is a bachelor's pad :P

And even when it's not about food, my KP neighbors Vanzama and CTa would come over to play Jenga on my table runner because, you know, some chicas had broken their hearts once again :D

So that's a brief description about my dining table and table runner.

In this post, I would just like to put up some of the food pics I had taken on my table runner. I will not be describing them or talking about where I ordered them from etc. Let the section from here onwards be just about food. No words. Pure food. Beautiful food on beautiful traditional Mizo ipte chei design table runner. Food on Art.

See if you can identify the name of each dish, and you can reply on FB or comment on my blog post with your guesses. The one with the most correct answers will win a special lunch or dinner treat from me :) and you know when it comes to food, I don't kid around.

So here goes. Hope you enjoy this mouth-watering scrumptious show, and hope it builds up some appetite for your lunch…

Food on Art. Exhibit (01).

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There are many more, but I think these will do. I don't wanna drown you in food or hog your data bandwidth. Looking forward to your answers. Cheers :)