Starbucks may have revolutionised the coffee house culture in the world but many don’t know that
Whenever I would hear the song, I longed to be there where famous people like Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Rabindranath Tagore, Satyajit Ray, Manna De himself and many others graced the premises of the old building. I would imagine how it would be to sit in one corner and have “adda” sessions with friends in the midst of a crowd that probably housed many upcoming famous people.
This summer my dream came true when I got to visit “Coffee House of College Street” as it is fondly called. Honestly speaking it had nothing of my imagination. I has always thought of coffee houses in their present avatars like a CCD or Barista. But “Coffee House” had the old world look to it, which I assumed they preserved with a motive. It was a huge hall of red coloured cemented floors and walls. Dozens of chairs and tables were arranged in an organised manner around the place. I, along with my companions took a corner table of four while at the same time glancing over the many occupied tables with interest hoping to see a known face. Though I didn’t really experience an adda session there, I could well imagine what it would be like to sit there and chat with friends for hours. How I longed to sit there and experience it. As I sipped my cold coffee, I wondered was it in the environment of the restaurant that such intellectuals were born or was it something else. Well, whatever it was for me it was an experience that I would hold dear for ever.