Coffee and Coding : HP Labs, Hyderabad.
A long time has passed by since I last blogged. Much has changed since then. Amongst the things that haven’t changed much, is my hatred for hot drinks. I’ve never been much fond of tea or coffee. But today’s story is about something much more than that.
The story begins in the City of Nizams, Pearls and Biriyani. The very fact that I chose to write about that cup of joy rather than a plate of delicious Hyderabadi Chicken biriyani reiterates my case. I was in Hyderabad for my summer internship at HP. The new Hyderabad airport is a masterpiece in itself. You seem to forget you’re in Hyderabad and start looking for firangs. What is not so good about it, is that it happens to be 20 km from civilization. It gets worse when its an hour past midnight when you reach there and you are supposed to be in office the next morning.
I did manage to get there on time. My mentor greeted me with a smile. He was a man in his 40s and and the head of the Tech division there. We were then engrossed in a casual conversation as he showed me around the office. It was then that it happened! We were in a lounge at the corner of the office when he stopped by an espresso machine and asked - “strong or not?’. “No thanks, no coffee for me” - I was about to say this, but he had already pressed the “Cappuccino” button twice and was now standing with two steaming cups.
Now the marginal utility of having caffeine is far outweighed by the demerits of the drink. For one, it is served hot. So hot that you are bound to burn yourself. Why would I not want to have a cool frappe instead? Why test my patience waiting for it to get better? Thankfully, this wasn’t one of those ordinary cups. My first sip and I realized it was perfect! Bulls eye! My wait was over. This was it. Perfect smell. Perfect taste. Just Perfect!
I had a hectic day. As I was made to zoom through a couple of 200 page books on Information Systems and Advanced System Analysis and Design, all I could think of was when can I have my next cup. I realized the last moment studying for IIT exams does indeed help a lot! How else can you explain me reading (flipping) through a couple of thick as a trunk books on Software Engineering within hours? Anyways, so I was free by the evening and served myself with another awesome cup.
The next day was spent reading about Storage Networks. Of course I did not forget my dear cappuccino. In fact I went one step further and experimented with different suger compositions. My findings indicate a critical quantity after which the taste drops exponentially. By the end of the day, I was full of 5 cups and googling “How much of coffee can you get high on?”. While it may let you work overtime, too much of caffeine can indeed make you dizzy. This point was further proven when I slept from 8 pm to 8 am that night.
Amongst the other random things I learnt in the next few days, Hyderabadi Chicken is NOT like what they serve by the same name in the IIT canteen(Gullu). Interestingly, Hyderabadi McGrills are exactly the same as Mumbai ones. The electrician of the room in which I stayed must’ve had some issues, and made sure to interchange ALL of the “Tube” and “Fan” labels on the switches. Pearl in Hyderabad is damn cheap. It is so cheap that you can’t even be sure if it is real pearl or not. People are really helpful, that is, if they know Hindi/English of course. A large bunch don’t!
And yes, coffee isn’t that bad after all!
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