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The stories we overlook, and the ones we never think to ask about. From one friend to another, and beyond—sparked by curiosity and kept alive through conversation.
It started with an addiction of coffee, but it became like this addiction with, like, engaging with the world and becoming like a framework for doing things, getting things done, providing a neutral space because you're not biased.
Living Biography:Conversations matter, especially in a world of constant rush and endless noise, where checking in too often means scrolling through social feeds. Sometimes, all it takes is a stubborn kind of curiosity, the kind that pauses, listens, and draws out the stories we overlook, the ones we never think to ask about. This is Living Biography, where we reaffirm our shared human story from one friend to another and beyond, sparked by curiosity and kept alive through conversation.
Living Biography:There's an interconnectedness between us and the places we've lived. We shape our communities and in turn, they shape us. But what is that place that left a lasting impression on the course of our lives?
Living Biography:Tushar Dadlani, originally from Pune, India, made his way to the Bay Area as a university student. I knew that life had taken him across the world, from the bustling streets of India to American suburbia and beyond. So when I asked him which place had shaped who he is today, I was surprised by his response. In his story, we see the merging of the micro and the macro, the tangible and the intangible in something so ordinary.
Tushar:I think there is like a theme in my life which is not a there's a series of places in some ways that have shaped me in very interesting ways. It's kind of like for me, I feel at home in a new city when I find the coffee shop next to my house that I can just go to and disconnect from reality.
Living Biography:Coffee shops. Many people love their coffee and they're certainly great places to meet friends or get some work done. But I never thought that they could be so integral to feeling at home. It's something I've just taken for granted. So I wanted to understand why.
Tushar:When I moved to Mountain View from India, right, it was away from home, away from family. And I was living with four other roommates, right? So it almost was like and then a two bed, two bath, right? So five people in a two bed, two bath is not great. It's like five adults. Right? It's not like five like, two kids and two adults. It's like five full grown adult men to break it very specific. So I was and because the commute was not I didn't have a car. Mount like any suburb in America, always require a car. Right? So I kind of accidentally landed at this coffee shop which was on the bus route. So I could if my classes were a little later, I would just stay on the bus route at this coffee shop. And then whenever I need to catch the next bus, I can just get on the bus and go there. And then if the campus shuts down or the building closes early like, I just wanted some humans around me to, like, do whatever I'm trying to do.
Living Biography:Undergrad is that time when you're trying to find and develop yourself, likely living with multiple roommates and not yet having the resources to do whatever you want. It makes sense that coffee shops became a safe haven for Tushar, a place of solitary reflections while in the presence of a slice of humanity.
Tushar:And over time, I started, like, there was, like, a poetry. I ran into people who are doing some, like, poetry, for example, to an Android meetup group where people were learning how to program Android phones. And there would be an open mic on a Monday evening at the same place. Right? And I am like, wow, there is so much diversity of this place which kind of it is not just a tech coffee shop where people are talking about tech and all of that. Even that is happening. But almost like the coffee shop embodied this multitude of people. And then they would support local artists. So local artists would have their art posted which you could buy from the artist. Like, they were not like they want a community coffee hub, right?
Living Biography:Tushar continued to explain that, sure, coffee can be pricey, $6 or $7 depending on the place. But to him, half the cost is for the coffee itself and the other half is for the culture and vibe. It's more than just money in exchange for a caffeinated drink. It's about having a space to work, to linger, to be among a diverse mix of people.
Tushar:It's a place where everybody is welcome. There's no gatekeeping on who enters, who doesn't. As long as you buy a beverage, you can and the cost of the beverage starts at $2 or $3 Whereas restaurants always have this weird gatekeeping. Right? There is a price tier. It's a cheap restaurant. Cheap restaurant, you are going for the food. The more expensive restaurant, you are going for the experience. But the kind of people that dine at a Michelin star are very different from the people that But a coffee shop is kind of this, I feel, melting pot.
Living Biography:Maybe lingering sounds like a negative thing. But for him, it led to these meaningful encounters that nudged the trajectory of his professional life. Once, he happened to sit next to someone pitching an idea to investors, an idea that turned out to be a direct competitor. It made him realize how much he needed to refine his own pitch. Another time, he crossed paths with people from OpenAI, Google, and Tesla, all major researchers in tech. As starstruck as he was, it still felt surprisingly grounded.
Tushar:Like, you read so much about them on the Internet. You see so much of of like quote unquote celebrity stuff and you are like, oh, you are just like a normal person. You are not you are getting coffee from the same place. So you almost feel this like you stop putting people on a pedestal because you and I are drinking the same coffee in a weird way. Like theoretically, there is this idea, right? We all use the same iPhone and even if so it doesn't matter. But when you actually are seeing that they are physically embodied in the same coffee shop or in the same space, it almost is like you get them off that pedestal that you might have been putting in your head. It is like if you in Hollywood and you see a celebrity going to the same coffee shop as you are, that's fine. But then if you try to go to Erewhon or something like that, it's like you are self selecting to try to run into celebrities. Right? Versus like, oh, they just go to the mom and pop shop in your neighborhood because just they live there. They happen to live there. They are part of their community.
Living Biography:Billions of people consume coffee around the world. But he drew a distinction between the coffee shops in India and those in America. And it became clear that it was the American coffee shop specifically that held a special place in his heart.
Tushar:You can see how in India, for example, like Cafe Coffee Day became this, after it became very popular, then a new brand kicked in at a higher price point. Once that diluted, that brand again became like a second tier brand, now a third. So that hierarchy of branding has almost become, like, Cafe Coffee Day, nobody in the upper middle class goes to Cafe Coffee Day anymore. They migrated to Barista because it was more selective, right? But people, like, in India, is traditionally a very divided society, that class system now is visible in which coffee shop chain you go to based on your, it has become a marker of division. But in America, it is actually not that way, right? The coffee costs $5 at Starbucks and at your bougie coffee shop. There's no financial difference in how things are divided. But in India, you can see that cultural divide.
Living Biography:I began to better understand his perspective. Having grown up witnessing a stark class divide in India, it was the sense of equality he saw in American coffee shops that left a deep impression on him. So I asked him, at this point, is it more an addiction to caffeine or to the feeling of being connected to a community?
Tushar:I don't know. I don't why I go there, I don't have a clear answer. It's just like I somehow convince myself to go to a coffee shop every day. To the extent, I think right now also, right, after this call, I plan to go to the coffee shop if possible. Right? And sometimes, I don't like interacting with people I run into because sometimes you end up going to the coffee shop so often, you start running into the regulars. Right? And then it is like people are like, oh, like sometimes they want to strike up a conversation and you are like, no, am here to like... It is almost this like, I don't know, it is observation. Like you just observe humanity in this kind of microcosm. You just have to observe. You don't have to judge. In a, weird kind of way. And you don't have to interact, you are not forced to interact. Like American coffee shops, people give you your space. Nobody is chatting you up unless you initiate something. People give you your space. I think that is the one, the personal space is respected and valued. And at the same time, also, there is opportunity. You can choose to engage with the people around. Because people have come there to engage maybe with a friend. They are by default in this engagement mindset, right? Or engage with the journal or engage with their book. It is just a way that a lot people stay for slightly longer than just picking up coffee and going, actually stay there for slightly, because they are coming there for some kind of enriching themselves in some form of engagement. It could be meeting up with a friend, meeting up professionally, meeting up with... They are trying to create some value, I feel like, in that environment. It's almost like that environment almost self selects for people who are trying to create some value in that moment for themselves.
Living Biography:Again, I have always seen coffee shops as places to meet friends and have meaningful conversations. But Tushar opened my eyes to something deeper. They're spaces for self reflection, glimpses of diversity, grounds for equality, and ultimately, places where value is created. There's a surprising profundity to coffee shops, huh? But why?
Tushar:I think for me it's important like it has to be a multi sensory experience if that makes sense. Because if all my senses are engaged, I guess now that I'm thinking about it if all my senses are engaged, I am getting the full human experience. Whereas if I am on a phone call, like one sensory like one sense is engaged but some other senses are disengaged. But going to a coffee shop and actually having coffee, like your taste buds are also engaged, your vision is also engaged, your ears are also engaged where there is some background noise always in a coffee shop of some kind. Either the espresso machine or whatever, right? And then because you physically go there, you can feel the marble or the surface, feel the chair. There is, I don't know. Like it is just a like you can smell the coffee. Like there is almost I feel like a coffee shop almost embodies this multi sensory experience of life in a weird kind of way and it provides all of them together. Because if there is no coffee, then there is no taste element. You eliminate the taste sense if that makes sense. Your entire sensory system gets triggered or at least gets reasonably activated in the coffee shop. So then you can do whatever else you were there for because now you are fully focused in a weird kind of way. Because you are not just thinking from one dimension. It is like a multidimensional. And you not also thinking alone because if you have some thoughts in your brain, can look around and be like, is this like valid for all of these people? Like, or am I just making stuff up? Right?
Living Biography:We went from talking about a college town coffee shop to multisensory experiences. Honestly, at the start of our conversation, I expected a nostalgic, sepia-toned memory of some old cafe. I didn't expect it to lead here. Coffee shops for him are the places that awaken his engagement to himself and the world. So to wrap things up, I asked him more directly, how did coffee shops shape who he is today?
Tushar:It started with an addiction of coffee, but it became like this addiction with like engaging with the world and becoming like a framework for doing things, getting things done, providing a neutral space because you're not biased, you're not... There are lesser distractions we were at a coffee shop because, you know, other people are indirectly watching you. Right? Like, even though they are not watching, the sense of people are watching me, you can't just, like, do random stuff that you might do at home, like, in your own comfortable space. Like, can go and take a nap, right? But if you are at home, working from home, you can always go and take a nap. So I guess that's how I look at it. It's like one addiction leading to another addiction kind of. But I'm like, yeah, as long as it's controlled, the value it provides is way more than all the costs that it comes with.
Living Biography:For Tushar, it wasn't just about coffee. Coffee shops became the daily pauses in his otherwise busy mind, engineering AI systems and building a startup. They were touch points for engaging with the community, for physically and intentionally putting pen to paper, for awakening all his senses and grounding him in reality. And from this home that he returns to within himself, he sets out again and again with a sense of clarity that he isn't drifting about aimlessly. Maybe it is a bit of a caffeine addiction, but it's also the ritual that reminds him, he's building technology for the real world, not removed from it, and that first and foremost, he's a drop of coffee in the pot of humankind.
Living Biography:Thanks for listening to Living Biography. This show is hosted by Teemyo, dedicated to expanding dialogue and ensuring technology serves humanity, not the other way around. We release new episodes every week, sharing the stories of ordinary people that remind us of our commonalities, not our differences. If you'd like to be a part of these stories, reach out to us at pod@valuebridge.ai for an informal and friendly conversation.