Zomato, An Indian's new guide to Food

I'm sure all my Indian readers out here must have heard about this website, Zomato. It's a website, which was started by a group of teens or just graduated teens, with a simple aim. Finding good food easily.
On the website/blog (Can't seem to remember where) They put up stories of how they met the first team and other interesting stuff, like They met their coder for the site in front of the IIT-D Canteen who was wearing a T which said "I will code for free food"
Interesting stories aside, here are my views about the website

The Positives

• The idea was great. India being a truly diverse nation having very urbanized and semi-rural areas which are hard to get to, creating a directory listing the restaurants was a hard task. Socializing the same to get the attention was to. But after that, the site spread like wildfire and the Foodie's who first came to the site never went back. Yes it was that helpful.
• Personal Messages. A feature I've been looking forward to from quite some time. Yes if you likdo is difficult. Which is why they organize meet-up's. Meet your fellow foodies who share a foodie's taste, and well he likes yours in return you can PM each other, and meet up! There's wasn't anyway you could communicate before on site but now there is. Of course spam won't be taken lightly by the Mod team of Zomato but this is one of the new additions I've liked!
• The website has seen many face-lifts. The latest one being too good. With a big cover of the great good from the city, you can get the picture at a glance and of course, on clicking on the picture will take you to said cuisine/place.
• The Top 25 and the Hall Of Fame. Yes, The Top 25 is there from a long time, but of course has changed it's rules to accommodate more and more reviewers coming in everyday. And there are badges also associated with it which you'll be tagged with if you meet the criterion. The Hall of Fame, or as they describe it, 'The Guru Level' consists of all the reviewers who are well, at par with the others. Brilliant mouth-watering words showered for each restaurant they step-in.
• Rating Distribution. I love this one! Go to a profile and on the right, you'll see a rating distribution. It basically tells you how much the person has rated all of the restaurants he's visited. 

The Negatives

• The Android app has not been updated since the new over-haul of the website in June. So the notifications are not clickable anymore. Not even the previous ones like Thanking and Followed. (Update: the app is now updated, somewhere between the night of 19th and the morning of 20th October)
• Subscription. Well what's the point of this anymore? Before you used to get the updates of the person you had subscribed/followed to in your notifications. Now it does not. So what's the point anymore? I mean you follow said person. The number increases on said person's profile, That is pretty much it now?
  I'd like it if either the notifications come back or the whole thing of following is closed (not likely) because it doesn't have a point anymore.
• The Cost for 2 filled up by many resturants isn't what you'd get in the real world. I mean yes, Zomato isn't directly related to it, but in most of the restaurants I've eaten there was a big gap in the two. Some places who had the cost for 2 at 600 came up to a whooping 900 at times and as low as 300 for 2. Yes, It's an approximate value but this much gap?
• Adding a photo to an already existing review. Yes I forgot to add a couple of pictures to it. Zomato won't let me add one again. A bug probably.

Well that's my take on Zomato of now. 

The site? Awesome! 

The idea, I don't think I even need to comment on the success of it's brilliance.

The Simplicity? Absolutely. Clean and a beautiful user interface.
This site has gone places. if you know what I mean. And part from some minor drawbacks, it's a good place to find good food from!

Relationships

Why do we want to get into a relationship??
This question has been bugging me from quite some time now and I finally came round to writing something about it. Well the answer to the above question is fairly simple.
Infatuation.
We feel infatuated to the opposite sex, feel that he or she is so perfect for you and this starts the whole chain of events resulting in you "in a relationship"
Okay. So this was about relationships. But why do you want to commit to the other person.
I'm not saying go around fooling with other people and play with feelings but why commit your entire life to someone at a tender age?
Yes, A tender age. And unless and until you're over 25 or something, keep reading.
Starting from High School, people start getting together with others and commit themselves to an everlasting relationship with them. But what they don't realize is that they haven't seen anybody!!
I mean you've just seen so limited people in your life and you already feel you've found the perfect match for you?
From school, you go to college. From college you go and get a job. During college you meet so many different people.
So why commit yourself to someone when you never know your better half could still be out there just traveling on his/her path leading to you?
And even if you don't find such a perfect person, its not like you're going to abandon the others right?
So before you commit yourself to anybody, just think about this how much of life have you actually seen that you're ready to spend the remainder of yours with him.
Experience life yourself before wanting to spend it with anybody else. And think before taking a decision. Most of those don't come again.

Happiness

How To Kill Hope - Dedicated to a Beloved

There are times when there is a person stuck inside our heads. Someone whom you may 'Like' or 'Have a crush on' or 'you're in love with'. This was the very situation I was in when I actually first thought about How can I Kill Hope.

Life is strange. The person in question was someone whom I got acquainted even less than an year ago. And to anybody who might see us talking, It'll seem like we've been the best of friends since ages.

When I first met her, I had a certain attraction towards her. My best guess would be her smile. Being a shy person I wouldn't say that we had some sort of instant connection, But when we exchanged numbers and we started talking, That's when the magic happened and we became friends. And in a little more time, Best friends!

Now I wouldn't say I eventually "fell in love" with her. Because quite frankly speaking I still do not know what love actually is. But my emotions and feelings grew stronger for her by every passing day.
When I told this to one of our mutual friend, She told me that It cannot happen and that I should not think further on this matter. That Night I weeped with the thought of not having her with me as my beloved for the rest of my life.

The following morning I decided to Kill all of my hope I have for her. Each and every shred of it.

Change is never easy. You fight to let go. You fight to hold on. And while all this fighting is taking place, we grab onto the thing which is closest to you and call it hope.

Growing out of a feeling is never easy. You love to hold on to things which you like. But I believe that somewhere deep down, You do know when it's over and pointless to begin. It's just that we choose not to listen to that.

You don't really need to kill hope. Without Hope, there isn't anything much left within us. Rather just concentrate those feelings on better things, close friends, the beautiful nature & be ready to face life. 

If your feelings are reciprocated by your counterpart. She'll come to you. Believe me, She will. Because Love is never born alone. Always in a pair. And If you feel you've met your perfect ONE, Then obviously she'll realize it too. Just a matter of time. Till then, Channelize your energy and continue to live life. And do it with a smile! =)

Change

Change is a part of life. Inevitable. Everything we have done and will do will define who we are.
Look back a year, and You'll realize how much you have changed, 'grown' in fact.
So why does one worry about change?

You say you don't. So tell me would you be comfortable in moving to a house with a limited amount of money? So limited that you're forced to buy your own food and make it?
Or would you be comfortable in just changing your daily routine of travelling from the car and take a bus instead? or would it be totally fine if you would instead of wearing fancy clothes, Just wear a loose T & shorts to go out??
Even if not one of these, Everyone knows beyond a certain point, The get 'uncomfortable'. And not safety hazardous or uncomfortable, but non-cozy uncomfortable.
So here's my point. Try doing on of those things. Regularly. And not daily regularly, but at least a biweekly.
Because some changes actually make you more self sufficient and it will only make your future easier to live in.
Just like in the movie 'Yes Man' & what my friend advised me. Try saying Yes to the next thing that happens to you.
You never know how it will Enrich you. :)

Love What You Do!

If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap.

If you want happiness for a day, go for a picnic.

If you want happiness for a week, go on a vacation.

If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune.

If you want happiness for a lifetime, learn to love what you do! :)

You are Fortunate!

So well, I goto college. And in my college, there are a couple of blind people who also study..... In regular Classrooms!

So one fine day I was standing out in our ground where I saw this one man who was walking around. I went close to him... Well kinda close and he automatically came up to me and asked, can you drop me off to the bus stop?
I wanted to help him out so I said yes, held his hand, and started walking with his pace.
Now how many of you have seen the Bollywood Hindi movie  Ghajini??
In the movie in one particular scene, the lead actress helps out a blind man and also tells him what all is happening along the way like kids playing etc.
So I started walking out and suddebly he said, what's happening?
I wondered what he was talking about. And then i noticed that the drama society was practicing. I suddenly felt a rush of gratitude for everyone and everything Ihad known.
Being with him I ACTUALLY felt how hard it must be living life.
Most of you must've heard only or been told that be fortunate for the things we have and that we're not blind or deaf or well disabled in any form, But actually being with such a person, it was a real eye opener!
That drama practice was one of the few things we would sed and go on along the eay. But for him it was a mystery unless someone told him what they were doing!
So I won't say thank god that you dont have any such disability.... but ATLEAST once in your life, spend 5 minutes with such a person.
You will realize the value of life.
And then again you can start being fortunate for being able to read this, Having a device to read this, internet and of course, the life you're living.