We started off the festivities with a real bang over our heads while one of the regulars cut the ribbon to the store and someone popped streamers and artificial snow. Lots of laughter and cheer ensured which reminded me why I liked the store more than ever. It was mostly because the team functioned as a family and the clients were welcome to be a part of it. I think that’s one of the reasons why I am so hooked to the store. I know each one of them and they know me by name!

Next on the agenda was cutting the cake. While we were a small group, we certainly managed to make plenty of noise. The delicious cake soon made its way into everyone’s mouths pretty quick. A sweet way to start the morning but I wasn’t complaining.

With that I thought that the festivities were done but I was mistaken. We were then informed that tomorrow (1st October) is International Coffee day. Fancy that! I never realized that there was an international coffee day. Well since the Starbucks coffee shop in Prestige Shantiniketan is closed on Sunday, they had decided to combine the celebrations.

Tejal took us through the process by which coffee is filtered. An interesting story that she told revolved about the creation of filter paper. The first filter paper was apparently created by a lady named Mellita Bentz. She wanted to have nicely strained coffee. After experimenting a lot, she finally found a piece of blotting paper in her sons notebook which she then used to strain the coffee. That was how the first filter paper was born. This tiny ingenious discovery let to her setting up a business with her husband and her sons as her first employees. I’m sure that it turned profitable pretty quick. Now if only I could be as ingenious as that!