Students worry about hanging out at pricey coffee shops

Various parks in the city which, during the winters see an overwhelming number of visitors, will now witness a decline due to the approaching summers. Among the visitors, of course, are the youth of Delhi, students who have it easy to spend time with their friends in parks rather than spending money in eateries. The coffee shops across the city are full with students throughout the year, but parks serve as an inexpensive alternative.

But as summer sets in and the mercury spirals, students will have no option but to shell out money from their allowance and hang around with their friends in coffee shops.
Metrolife spoke to some of the students who are not looking forward to the summers.
Swati Saini, a student in south campus college of Delhi University lives in Karol Bagh and spent the evenings this winter hanging out with her friends at Central Park of Connaught Place.

“I get anything between Rs 3,000 -- Rs 4,000 as monthly allowance and most of it is spent on transportation. However, I manage to save some money to hang out with my friends and winters are generally a better time because we can sit at any place and have a chat. The same though cannot be said for summers,” Saini said.

But why has the craze for hanging out at coffee shops decreased over the years?
According to Rashmi, ‘Friends’ a popular American sitcom, has a certain level of influence among its audiences which are primarily youth. The protagonists in the sitcom were often seen hanging around in a neighbourhood coffee shop!

“All of my friends love the show. Even in my college a lot of groups would hang out in coffee shops for hours and chat. However, being students we realised we can’t keep up with the expenses of having coffee every day, hence colleges and university parks were a better option,” was Rashmi’s candid reply to Metrolife.

“College canteens are a good place to hang out but it gets boring. Fast food chains, which are relatively cheaper than coffee shops, are overcrowded all the time thus leaving us with only one option. And it’s not an ideal one,” said Bhargav, another student.
Kunal, however seemed to be not too concerned about where he and his friends hang out. He said the place hardly matters. “Of course, it would be great if we were able to sit in decent places but being students, we have to compromise at some level. Plus, I really think, the elite culture is over rated. We should rather focus on what we talk about rather than where we sit,” he told Metrolife.