If you didn’t have to pay for your food, what would you spend your money on? It’s a question worth pondering, all thanks to Falling Fruit.

Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush

We came across Falling Fruit (http://fallingfruit.org) through someone’s tweet, an incredible resource of public “edibles”, which has, since it began in 2008 in the States, expanded with maps to public trees in Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Netherlands, Uruguay, Mauritius, Italy, Poland and us in New Delhi. An open source project, anyone can add trees to the map by clicking on ‘add source’, so if your courtyard’s mango tree belongs to no one and everyone, go ahead and put it on the list.

Started by Caleb Philips and Ethan Welty, Falling Fruit began when Caleb noticed a number of blossoming cherry and apple trees in his new neighbourhood and wanted other people to know about them. Some of his co-workers thought he was strange, picking fruit off a tree, and seeing how bewildered they were only made want to make more people aware of good food growing right on their doorsteps.

But it’s not just fruit trees you can add to the map, they have an open definition for “edibles”, which in their database includes sugar maples and honey locusts, but could stretch for you to include a wild pumpkin patch or a neem tree for the leaves.  “We’re hoping that besides informing people about food, they’d easily recognize growing in their neighbourhood, we can also foster a bit of culinary exploration in the urban environment,” says Caleb in an email to us.

Apples To Apples

The fruit trees in Delhi are mainly jamuns, plotted on a map by the children at Jamghat, a street childrens organization. So if you fancied an evening picking mangoes at a public tree listed near the Hazari metro station or wanted a banana after lunch at a tree listed near Old Delhi Junction railway station, this is where to look. The idea is for people to be polite and take what they need, instead of harvesting trees already well picked and cared for by others. Or selling the fruit later. Take a mango, but eat it now. Ethan points us towards articles about starting a tree census for Delhi and hopes to be able to acquire that data to add edible species to the map.

Take a good look at the trees near you next time you go for a walk. What could you eat if you never wanted to buy food again? The answers are ripe for the picking.

Getting there: Visit www.fallingfruit.org to contribute to the map or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

What: IDfy.com, an online trust establishment platform for employees and employers, free and premium services available.

Why: A night of partying on the town can take quite a toll on your liver and Facebook feed. The picture of you dancing on the bar? Oops. And that close up of you with a cigarette. Burn! A dodgy digital presence can work against you in a professional setting, especially if you have nothing to back you up or verify the claims on your resume. IDfy.com, a trust platform started by friends Ashok Hariharan, Hatim Baheranwala, and Vineet Jawa offers to set up a suitable online profile and resume that can be verified by your peers, business partners and reviewed by potential employers, investors and even a landlord. ISB and Namma Bengaluru are some of the organisations that use IDfy’s services.

When: You need a new (pro)file cabinet.

What: Happy Hours app, available here for iOS and here for Android, free.

 

Why: This Happy Hour app is so nifty, we wish we had thought of it ourselves. Once you download it on your phone, it asks you to choose a city (Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chandigarh), and a location close to you so it can pinpoint the best deals. From playing about with it at 6 pm, we found out that nearby All American Diner has buy one get one all days of the week, Kylin has 1 + 1 Cosmopolitans and free foot massages for girls on Thursdays, and all restaurants are listed with phone numbers, addresses, cuisine and whether or not they take credit cards. Appy hour!

 

When: You just want a little credit.

Introducing our new regular feature: the bpb Directory. At the end of every month, we’re going to put all our stories together in one place, so you can catch up on something if you missed it or re-read a favourite review. Here’s what happened in April!

Food And Drink

Our reviews for April were hit or miss. We absolutely loved the home delivery stuff this month, from rolls to mutton to delectable dessert but were a bit underwhelmed by the new restaurants.

Rollmaal: Launched by the guys behind Mamagoto, Rollmaal, a small self-service eatery in Def Col’s main market, marked with a rolling pin window display, servers in khaki uniforms and a menu of rolls, biryani, butter chicken and vada pav.

Hmmutton: Shredded mutton in thick gravy, this is reminiscent of a Punjabi-meets-Andhra mutton curry transformed into a super spicy sandwich filling. The punch comes from desi paan-ka-patta cooked with the meat.

White Water Café: Once again we found ourselves hunting for even fillip of spice in the curry: we detected lemongrass, chicken and the creamy texture of coconut milk, all of which seemed disjointed and awkward, like relatives no longer speaking and forced to be a part of a family picture.

Sakae Sushi: While the conveyor belt is usually a fun experience, our first snafu at the restaurant was identifying exactly what was on the plates that trundled past us, the staff saying nothing more beyond, “that’s veg.” There was a sign indicating what colour plate corresponded to which price, but beyond that, we had to resort to guesswork, poking the sushi tentatively to reveal its ingredients.

Smitten: Our bread-th was taken away by chocolate cinnamon bread, yeasty and swirled with generous amounts of dark chocolate and cinammon; eating this for breakfast would be like going to a carnival every morning.

Amsterdam Kitchen & Bar: Despite the moniker there are obviously no happy brownies to be had here. You can, however, get pretty high with a Levitating Orgy, a heady cocktail of mandarin, sugar and vodka. The manager (erstwhile bar manager at Shalom) informed us proudly that he has a cocktail named after him as well. Bhuban's Red Passion Levitation turned out to be fresh pomegranate generously lashed with gin.

Three Windows Café: The café itself couldn’t be more removed from its gang land outside. It’s pretty, with an open plan kitchen, a laptop playing music and a chef pottering about, very much like being in someone’s own personal kitchen. To top it off, there’s free wi-fi, no hurry about when you leave and a small armchair in a corner serves as the smoking seat.

HKV Openings & Closings: Smoke House Deli, HKV is almost ready, complete with  signature pretty sketched-on walls and a view of the trees. Slated to open in mid-May, this SHD will be in the back lane quite close to the doomed Iron Curtain.

Shop

It was nice for us to see so many experiments in retail this month, from Nappa Dori’s fabulous briefcase backpacks to customized furniture designs.

Book Of Deer: Designed for the “quietly iconoclastic girl”, the Book of Deer brand of clothing cuts through the hyper-modern look with butter-soft fabrics and hand-drawn digital prints of a natural world.

Oxford Bookstore: As for the collection of books, International Fiction was surprisingly devoid of even popular titles: the free access public computer told us that Junot Diaz was out of stock and the only Zadie Smith book they had was White Teeth. A search for Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore proved completely futile.

The Kirana Shop: With pickles and produce interspersed with embroidered cushion covers from Kashmir and soap, it’s a mish-mash but one that smells good.

Shift By Nimish Shah: See Shift’s skirts and blouses with China blue flowers and a pop of orange beads, hand printed jackets, and melt over a sorbet pink cotton frock with organdie trims.

Suhani Pittie: Go past the peacock plumes and open doors to find gold and silver plated jewellery that seems to be preoccupied with the sky.

En Inde store: We could be accused of skirting the issue, but the truth is that while newbies will find plenty of En Inde pieces to take home, the collection doesn’t offer much innovation for shoppers familiar with the brand.

M.A.C’s Archie Collection: Consisting of cutely packaged lip, eye and nail products with names such as Betty Bright, Heiress Lodge, Boyfriend Stealer and a bunch blush tones that fall under Ms Cooper's purview.

Blue Oak Atelier: Christophe began by making a few 3D models for our friend to look at based on her brief—“rustic”. When she zeroed in on one, they went to shop for wood together, and she watched the whole birth.

Nappa Dori’s Briefcase Backpack:  The cool thing about this Nappa Dori trunk is that it turns into a bag pack, is small enough for daily, non-travel use, and comes with a key.

Services

An oddly quiet month for unusual or new services, we still managed to dig up two pretty cool things—both absolutely necessary.

Reglobe Recycled Laptops: They don’t guarantee that your laptop will be brand new and shiny, but if you’ve been into the dented-painted girls, this is a good place to score one for cheap. Plus it’s a good way of getting rid of extra machines, as the website offers free pick-up of your old computers in Delhi and Mumbai.

Batman Delivers: A Gurgaon superhero’s answer to the problem is Batman Delivers, a recently launched home-delivery service which promises pretty much everything except a solution to crime.

Feel Good

We ran a regular feature on Delhi people doing old school things this month plus pretty much the best marketing idea ever: Apollo Tyres’ Pothole Project.

Delhi People: Mrs. Bansal: Mrs. Bansal has “grown up in gardens,” and breathes, lives, talks plants and flowers. Outdoing the clichés that come along with being good at gardening, lets just say, a green thumb would look like a tattoo on her.

Delhi People: Sahil Vasudeva: The man declares that if you’re his student, he’s ready to see you pissed off, delighted, oblivious or aware of your own mood swings, and hopefully stunned at the magically surreal moments when your fingers may learn a piece while you sleep (this does happen, he assures).

Delhi People: Dr. Nutan:  Summarizing the evolution of baby-birthing as a culturally and economically shaped phenomenon, she pushed me to question how and why many of us have come to equate childbirth with “delivery schedules”.

Grey Garden Rooms: The rooms will operate more like service apartments than a B&B, although breakfast is included in the price of your stay. Both are furnished with found objects, says owner Smita Singh, and are be decorated in the off-white floaty canopy style that regulars to the store and restaurant will be familiar with.

CD Jacket Designers: bpb's lovely new writer  - hi Bhairavi! - finds some yummy Indie album covers and tells you why you should use the designers behind them to do your stationery,  paint your shoes and spray your walls.

The Pothole Project: If your photo gets over 25 likes, Apollo Tyres will fix the hole for you, with a little stencil painted over the road with your name and the pothole’s name.

The Eternal Library: Run by book editors Ahalya Naidu and Meethil Momaya, The Eternal Library offers a bunch of services ranging from curating Indian and international titles to offering shelving ideas.

All Creatures Great And Small: All produce from the organic farm go to HIV orphans, all animals are ones in crisis—abandoned or handicapped, and they’re building a four bedroom house on the property where volunteers can live and work up in the Aravalli Hills.

Isa Khan’s Tomb: The best photograph you can take of Isa Khan’s resting spot is once you pass through the high arches and look at it sitting squat and white in front of you.

Travel

Bombay, Goa or London? We’re feeling wanderlusty already and the summer hasn’t even begun. Tip: avoid the bus, take a plane.

The Moving Cart, Mumbai: The yellow and red table mats that don’t seem to match anything, are apparently made of non-skid material, which means your glass of water won’t fall even when the bus moves.

Travel To A Conference: bpb gets 8 conference hoppers - experts from different fields - to help you pick talks and trade fairs, fests and forums  in India and around the world.

London: All That You Must: [At Frevd…] They have a bartender here called Noah (I checked with my friend he's still there) who has the hots for Indian girls and is quite yummy himself. He will get you your drink fastest.

What: Post midnight home-delivery service, Batman Delivers, call 9910099925, Rs 140 for veg biryani

Why: Of all the things debauchery is associated with, an empty, rumbling stomach should not be one of them. A Gurgaon superhero’s answer to the problem is Batman Delivers, a recently launched home-delivery service which promises pretty much everything except a solution to crime. A food menu which covers salads to much needed post-midnight carbs and extras like milk shakes, last minute party essentials (Digene and Eno), 'suttas' , diapers, condoms, tampons and a stationery kit (perhaps for the apology letter that you'll need to write next morning).  Robin is not included.

When: You've Gotham All.

See our free monthly listings of super job openings in the city, from working at social media firms to landing gigs at design studios and brand consultancies. Know of a cool job opening? Send us an email on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and we'll list it for free!

Facebook, is looking for a Media Analyst for its Hyderabad office. Candidates must have at least two years of experience in media analytics, be passionate about Facebook and consumer internet, with a Bachelor's or Masters in a technical/qualitative field. Apply online here.

AFAQS, the online communication portal for Indian advertising, media and marketing, is looking for two Assistant Managers for their Gurgaon office. Candidates must have one to two years of experience . Email CVs to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

The Happy Hands Foundation, has launched the Youth ACT Fellowship. Fellows are connected with the country's craft-communities and rural-livelihoods and given a chance to use innovative solutions -marketing, creative/product development, photography, technology-based teaching, pricing and accountancy, etc. Applicants must be 17-20 year olds and happy to take the road less travelled. Apply here.

Experience Commerce a digital marketing brand is looking for someone to lead the Digital Content in Delhi. Prior experience in journalism ranging from 2-4 years along with knowledge of digital media is essential. Candidates can email their resume to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

BBC News is looking for a multimedia Hindi producer for it's Delhi office. A full command of the language (Hindi and English) is necessary, along with relevant experience in journalism. Please apply here.

MTV India is looking for Editorial Interns to write for the MTV India website. A journalism background with previous knowledge of social media is encouraged. Candidates must at least be graduates.Send in your CV's to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with "Editorial Intern" in the subject line.

NDTV is looking for Senior Executive- Advertising Sales. Strong analytical skills are required with a preference for MBA candidates. 2-4 years in TV Ad sales is essential. Apply online here.

See our free monthly listings of super job openings in the city, from working at social media firms to landing gigs at design studios and brand consultancies. Know of a cool job opening? Send us an email on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and we'll list it for free!

Brown Paper Bag: Brown Paper Bag is looking for a project manager with one to two years of experience to run an awesome new program. Strong organizational and people skills required. Email resumes to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Rock Street Journal: Rock Street Journal, the music magazine with a cult following, is looking for writers in Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi. Good writing skills, coupled with a love for music and a knowledge of the local music scene are a must. Email your resume with some writing samples to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

SkillHippo: SkillHippo is looking for a content writer with at least one year experience. Candidates should have a flair for writing and an understanding of social media. A detailed job description is available here.  Email your resume to  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Outlook India: Outlook India the web portal of the Outlook group is looking to hire fresh graduates. Candidates must have strong writing skills, ease with working in an online environment and an appetite to keep up with the news. Email your resumes with the subject line ‘YES I CAN’ to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . 

Please See: The boutique creative agency based in Bombay and Delhi is looking to fill the positions of Senior Art Director and Accounts Supervisor in both our offices. Applicants must have 6+ years experience. They are also looking for responsible, creative and fun people to fill other positions in the design, copywriting and account management departments. If you think you’d be a good fit, email your resume to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Don’t forget to include the one great idea you’ve seen or had lately. 

Bring Home Stories: Bring Home Stories, the city inspired design and experience company, is looking for models to launch their campaign.  If you’re a model or want to model please send in your picture to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . They prefer models who eat ! (Amen.)

Collegify: Collegify, an education consulting company,  is looking for interns interested in the education sector, who write well, are willing to think out of the  box and don’t mind working a graveyard shift (when needed). Email your resume along with two lines from your favourite book to to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . 

^{You + Instagram + food = mildly annoying. But with video tools and the right kind of direction, you’d be a treat.} 

Meet Sapna Shahani, an award-winning video blogger with a decade of work behind her, who has now started teaching her skill to individuals, groups and corporates.  Sapna is also founder of the WAVE India project (Women Aloud Videoblogging for Empowerment – www.waveindia.org) that has won awards at the International Journalism Festival, Italy; and the Stockholm Challenge and Women’s Voices Now, New York. For this project, Shahani and her team trained 50 young women from every state in India to make 200 web documentaries on social justice themes that would help them become leaders who provide effective solutions in order to empower a society.

Suddenly, taking pictures of your deep friend churros is making you feel a little shallow right?

Chick's Flick

Sapna, a producer, director, script writer and Final Cut Pro editor who started her production footings at Berkeley Community Media where she worked at their public TV station, has previously taught citizen journalism and video production for the web in Goa and across Northeast India. She has put together a workshop for aspiring documentary filmmakers, students, women, zealous citizens and just about anyone else interested in learning how to make a professional non-fiction video driven by a message or an idea and does a ton of corporate trainings in Delhi.

If you're interested, you or your company can call her to conduct personalized workshops, which often includes four-part lessons on creating a professional non-fiction video for the web that will show you how to get started, flesh out the idea, plan the shoot, light your movie, work on sound and editing.  This hands-on class will be a feasible alternative to longer 1-year film school programmes, according to Sapna. 

Come now, we can always think of a way to combine that raspberry cake sitting in front of you with a larger cause.  

Getting there: Workshop starts on April 13 and will be held every Saturday from 9 am to 1 pm (for 4 Saturdays), location to be decided in Andheri. For individual and corporate workshops call Sapna on 9819829310, Rs 10,000 (early bird discount of Rs 8,000 if booking is made before 7th April).

Toy Story style, in computer purgatory, lie the ghosts of once-beloved machines, the tablet you had to have, the bulky laptop still with your sticker marks on it, on which you wrote your first novel, all making conversation with each other. “She no longer loves me, but how she loved me,” they say, paraphrasing Neruda. Let your laptops go have a second chance at love with new website Reglobe (www.reglobe.in) and remember, if they come back, they’re yours.

Keeper Of The Key(board)s

All laptops on Reglobe are once-used, so you’re getting the divorced guys, but these have been completely overhauled with a system reboot and a one-year on-site warranty - Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless Drive?. They don’t guarantee that your laptop will be brand new and shiny, but if you’ve been into the dented-painted girls, this is a good place to score one for cheap. Plus it’s a good way of getting rid of extra machines, as the website offers free pick-up of your old computers in Delhi and Mumbai. Granted, you might be forced to let go of a perfectly functional old machine for about Rs 2,500 (as we were for a Dell Inspiron), but better than it sitting around collecting dust, right?

Reglobe is two months old, and its founders Nakul Kumar and Mandeep Manocha are engineers with a background in e-waste consulting. They ran a recycling plant for a while, which they shut down in September to focus on this. In the future, the website will allow you to buy and sell old cellphones and tablets as well, but at the moment, they’re just focusing on building up geographically as well as collecting old laptops.

Tested And Screened

All laptops go through a sixteen step overhaul of the hardware, so while the OS will remain the same, you’ll be able to get a second-hand one with a new battery, updated keyboard and so on.

We did a little comparing online to see what kind of deals you could be getting. For an Apple MacBook Pro A1278, the new price is about Rs 65,000 while on this website it’s Rs 45,000. Then there’s the IBM T61 ThinkPad going for approximately Rs 87,000 for Rs 13,900. More comparisons? The HP EliteBook 8440p (i5) for Rs 46,000 versus Rs 24,999, Toshiba L40 for Rs 27,000 versus Rs 11,000 and HP Compaq Presario CQ40 for approximately Rs 27,000 versus Rs 13,500. That’s a lot of numbers, but figure this: you’re saving at least half the cash, which you can put away for a holiday somewhere with tropical drinks. Take your new toy (boy).

Getting there: Log on to www.reglobe.in, Rs 13,900 for an IBM ThinkPad, free pick up of old laptops.

The starting point for Art & The City, a map of Delhi’s art galleries, was artist Julia Gutge and journalist Nona Arhe decision to make weekends less about drinking and more about exploring their creative sides. But, armed with little more than fragments of information from magazines and websites, the duo found themselves getting woefully lost in the labyrinth that is Lado Sarai. It was mainly to make their lives easier that they started the map, experimenting with hand drawing before deciding to go the graphic design way, which is when Rajiv Singh, an architect, came in. 

bpb got to look at a copy of the finished product, and while the map is very pink, it is comprehensive, with stars indicating the galleries, icons for nearby landmarks and metro stations, and marked galleries with cafes and stores. More for newbies than for people already intimate with the scene, this is still a nifty resource. It includes 96 galleries, museums and cultural centres, with the usual suspects and other, more off-beat spaces like JNU's School Of Art and Aesthetics which sometimes has open lectures on Fridays and Indiapix in Vasant Vihar, an excellent resource of photography with workshops and a printing studio built in.

City(ing) Still

Plus if you’d rather have a more intimate experience, Julia and Nona are also planning on doing several art walks on a semi-regular basis. Walking the talk?

PS: bpb also recently came across this wonderful map by NGO Jagori, which maps major spots in Delhi and marks areas that are safe for women, including where there are no street lights, which alleyways are dark and what public areas have security guards. Paper spray, anyone?

Getting there: Buy the map at select outlets including Flipside, Yodakin and Kunzum, HKV, Faqir Chand & Sons, Khan Market and Lila, Shahpur Jat, Rs 50 per map.