My Coffee House Experience

Starbucks may have revolutionised the coffee house culture in the world but many don’t know that India had its own “Coffee House” way before Starbucks was formed. Ask any Bengali about the song, “Coffee Houser Sei Adda Ta”, and everyone will immediately recognise the famous Manna De number. Such was the importance or rather popularity of “Coffee House” that a whole new song got composed on it.

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.