Three parts tequila, two parts cointreau, a dash of lime with ice and a salt rimmed glass—this is 25-year-old Anushika Pradhan’s world of cocktails and dreams. A bartender at the Dublin in the ITC Maurya Sheraton hotel, Delhi, for Pradhan, “mixing drinks is like magic”. Coming to Delhi from Gangtok two years ago, she took a bartending course and went from being a hostess in a restaurant to tossing bottles at the bar for an appreciative audience. “My parents were worried for my safety and that society would have a negative perception of me,” she says. But with guards on duty, a company car to see her home and a big pay cheque, Pradhan has allayed her parents’ fears. She is now living it up and practising juggling at home as she sips on her favourite cocktail—a mojito.
Rs.2,000 Pradhan’s biggest tip
BARTENDERProvenance: Delhi
Celebrating the difference: I get to sleep in every morning, enjoy great food and listen to good music every night. I couldn’t ask for more.
A code you Live by: I live by my own rules, not by what society thinks.
If you weren’t in this profession What would you be?: I would take over the reins of my father’s travel agency in Gangtok, Sikkim.
First tip: Rs 500
