NEW DELHI - Sipping a tall glass of cafe frappe, listening to soft music and sitting in the comfort of an air conditioned room while working on the laptop. That’s what the employees of some offices in Delhi are doing after being permitted to shift base to coffee shops, thanks to frequent and long power cuts in the city.

What’s more, the bills run up by these employees at coffee shops will be paid for by the office!

Take Sangita Singh, an officegoer in Connaught Place, for instance. On Monday, there was no power in her office since early morning.

With their computers not working - not even fans and ACs in the heat, Singh’s boss decided they should all shift base to the nearby Cafe Coffee Day outlet and complete their work from there.

It only made sense. Since morning we were sitting without the fan or AC, with the blank computer screen staring back at us. Since we are a small office of just four people, our boss decided that we go to the coffee shop nearby with our laptops and complete our work, Singh told IANS.

So the rest of the day we were sipping beverages, charging our laptops in turns - since there weren’t enough plug points - and doing our work. It was actually good fun. And the office footed our bills! she laughed.

Similarly, Ashok Verma, another office goer, said he too worked out of a coffee shop because his office was plunged into darkness through most part of the day.

There was no power and water in my office since morning and it was impossible to work, so we shifted to a coffee outlet in Janpath and throughout the day we were operating from there, said Verma, whose office is in the Ansal Bhavan at Connaught Place.

We all carried our laptops and mobile phones and also informed out headquarters in the US to call directly on our mobile phones rather than at the office for the time being, he said.

Most areas of Delhi have been suffering from long power outages and water shortage for the past several days forcing residents to come out on the streets to protest.

The capital’s power demand rose to 4,261 MW, the highest this season, Monday. The latter half of the day, however, offered some respite as a light drizzle brought down the mercury.

This morning I called our office peon from home to find out about the power condition and he said that things were a tad better. Not wanting to take a chance though, I called my boss to suggest that we work out of the coffee shop today as well!” Singh said.

“Who wants to have coffee from the vending machine anyway when you can have a chilled cafe mocha instead!