কফি হাউসের সেই আড্ডা টা আজ আর নেই !

(The title of this post, loosely translated into the Queen’s language means - “Those good ole days at coffee house, ain’t no more !”)

Coffee house tucked away in a heritage building on Bankim Chatterjee বই পাড়া, is seeped in history. It is a mnemonic that will tug at most any heart of die hard lover of this city. There are some places that transcend generations and stand the test of time. Coffee House leads the pack of this club. The history of the Coffee House at College Street can be traced to Albert Hall, which was founded in April 1876. Later, the Coffee Board decided to start a coffee joint from the Albert Hall in 1942. Notable citizens, including Rabindranath Tagore and Subhas Chandra Bose, were frequent visitors to the place. In 1947, the Central Government changed the name of the place to "Coffee House". The place became a meeting place for the poets, artistes, literati and people from the world of art and culture. In 1958, the management decided to shut down the Coffee House, but it was re-opened the same year, after professors of Presidency College and Calcutta University rushed off a special petition to the government, to save the heritage place.

To give you some more history about this place here is a little trivia - The India Coffee House chain was started by the Coffee Board in early 1940s, during British rule. In the mid 1950s the Board closed down the Coffee Houses, due to a policy change. The thrown-out workers then took over the branches, under the leadership of the communist leader A. K. Gopalan and renamed the network as Indian Coffee House.

After a gap of nearly a month, I return to my blog space with vengeance. With a mild winter finally setting in Calcutta, there is hardly any time to waste. Thanks to an extremely short lived winter we see in Calcutta, I hold it close to my heart. What better time to descend on to this historic address than a cool and crisp Saturday morning. The day started with a bang ! Me and my wife as luck would have it, got into the heated debate early in the morning. There is something about anger and excitement. The adrenalin rush does wonders to your metabolism. Don’t know about you but it does to me. Thanks to an exciting start to the day, I was hungry and was craving for some steaming ‘Americano’ coffee with a classic breakfast, Coffee House style ! I called a friend, who as always came to my rescue and agreed to accompany me on my journey to Joie de vivre !

10 AM. Rush hour traffic. Time taken - 30 minutes, elapsed time to the centre of the earth(read city). Most book stalls still closed. Some shop keepers who were just getting ready for the day. Setting up their shops for a grueling day of business. Just another day at the office for a college street book stall owner.

We parked our car on University Street and walked down one block towards our destination this fine morning.

The erstwhile Albert Hall, now Coffee House is almost hidden among book shops, bill boards and political graffiti. This place was as much a seat of intellectualism as it was a breeding ground of student politics. Many a war of words and otherwise have been fought at this battle ground. Over endless cups of coffee and smoke billowing out of cigarettes. Now I say this at the risk of sounding like a supporter of Big Tobacco, which I am not. I confess that I am myself a light/occasional smoker.  If you go back in time, to say Ray movies for example – all protagonists, characters, villains smoked nonchalantly. Smoking in Bengal has always been part of the culture. We all know of it’s ill effects, and this is not a forum to debate that. I am stating facts the way they are, I am not asking you to smoke or not to for that matter :)

Just as you walk into the promenade of the coffee house – history embedded in the stairwells and its walls embraces you. It is plain sad that a place as rich in history is neglected. Lack of cleanliness. Lack of maintenance. Lack of upkeep . Or may be it is just that the cob webs and the dusty look adds to the ambiance. Bengal and Calcutta has always been a hot bed of politics and today’s politics is no different in that aspect. And it thrives right here under the shade of this age old institution. But I tell you what – whatever this place lacks in terms of being spic and span, it makes up for it by it’s character. Picture as they is worth a thousand words or may be more. So here are some….

 

Believe me when I say this is the best time of the year if you are to visit Calcutta. Mild winter temperatures, cool day breeze and the soft rays of a winter sun. Kids are happy as a punch, with their schools are about to give over for Christmas and winter vacations. So we walk into a surprisingly clean, well ordered, and only sparsely populated 1st floor lobby of The Coffee House ! 

May be I am just a die hard romantic, but not visiting The Coffee House on a trip to Calcutta is pure sacrilege. It is almost like visiting Rome and not getting a dekko of the Sistine Chappel ! Some might balk at this exaggeration, but then who cares !

This to me is an instant classic. Just look at the sun rays tunneling through the sun roofs and bathing the entire dining area with crisp winter sun ! I say, La Dolce Vita !

My previous memory of this place is from my college days when this used to be a favorite haunt among us, even though our college was some ways from it. No contrary to popular perception – I did not go to one of them fancy colleges be it – St. Xaviers, Presidency, Scottish Church, or even Goenka College of Commerce. I went to SAJ for short – Seth Anandaram Jaipuria College.

The menu at The Coffee House is simplistic. Don’t go in here expecting to get spoiled with choices. Coffee means coffee here. There are a couple of variants though – hot, cold, premixed with milk and sugar, or milk and sugar served separately, or hot/cold coffee with cream or just plain old Infusion.  No lattes, No cappuccinos, No Mochas  either or any of it’s fancy cousins. If you ask me, I think they are overrated any how :)

 

Apart from the coffee, the menu presents a stellar cast of Omlettes, Chicken Sandwiches, Onion Pakora (Onion Fritters to the anglicized :) and Chicken Afghani. Prices are reasonable to say the least.

There were few people when we walked in. Service was swift. From 0-60 in about 10 mins. We flagged our waiter down with a hand gesture that only works in this part of the world. Some people like to use phrases such as ‘এই যে দাদা !’  loosely translated means - ‘Hey big brother !’.

I think the gentleman above was called 'either ‘Salim bhai’ or ‘Suleiman bhai’. I wanted to talk to him and ask him a few questions as to how long he had been here and what are some of the changes he has seen over the years. But people had to started to pour in, and he was getting busier. And in the conundrum I forgot to interview him for this post. What a shame ! Oh well, next time I guess !

We placed our order without much deliberation.

• 2 Hot Coffee Trays
• 2 Chicken Omlettes
• 3 Buttered Toasts
• Chicken Sandwiches

The coffee was Signature Coffee House. So were the omlettes, and buttered toasts. The omlettes here are nearly deep fried, you can tell by the look of it. If I know a thing or two about cooking, I can be sure that these are fried on frying pans with liberal quantities of oil. They had little to no salt in them, again just classically served. You add your own salt and pepper.

There are few places where the intellectual ambiance and sheer character of the place is more inviting than the actual food itself. The Coffee House is split into two levels, the second floor opens for business only later in the day. I was still able to squeeze myself through a pair of locked doors on the second floor and get some aerial shots of the first floor lobby. Here they are.

The changing face of Coffee House is clearly evident in the picture above, where you see a young man sipping away on his laptop and black coffee. Laptops have replaced old dog eared books. The crowd at this forenoon hour was eclectic from young college students, to middle aged men, to some old timers deep in thought and engaged in conversation.

Finally reproduced below is a rare moment of self adulation. A not-so-young-man in an illustrative yet smoky expression :)

Done with a hearty breakfast, we were ready to hit the road to be back in time for a date with the doctor. By now, clock had struck nearly noon. The dining hall was mostly full and abuzz with activity. Outside, most book stalls had upped their shutters and it was business as usual !

 

No mention of Coffee House is complete without a recollection of the Manna Dey classic that shares it’s title with the title of this post :) Did you know Manna da himself is an alumni of Scottish Church College ? If you haven’t heard this in a while – enjoy ! After all this, if you are brimming with nostalgia, come on down to Calcutta and we will take a trip down memory lane …

Bibi of Taaja’s

Bibi of Taaja’s is the most ‘unusual’ restaurant (if I may use that word) you could find in ‘The City of Joy’. It is tucked away in a quaint lane near Jodhpur Park. Just a stone’s throw from দখিনাপন (Dokhhinapon) shopping complex. If you are driving in from the North – you need to go over the ‘Dhakuria’ flyover. Past Dokhhinapon, it is located in the third lane on your left hand side.

I first read about Taaja’s in an article in The Telegraph by foodie and musician - Nondon Bagchi. Ever since then, I had been wanting to eat here. Done with Diwali dinner the night before, the foodie in me was craving for just what I got to eat. It was a languid Saturday afternoon, I had lunch and movie plans.

When you walk inside the building it is housed in, it feels like you are entering an old South Kolkata house. Which it incidentally is, but not a restaurant. I was greeted by the signage below. And I instantly knew – this wasn’t your typical restaurant !

I had only had some fruits for breakfast and the hunger brewing within was challenging my senses. I could not spot the bell. I spent a few moments bumbling around and ultimately found the bell on the top-left-hand-corner of the door frame. ‘Hence the up-arrow on the sign’, the lady who stepped out judging my inability to decipher basic instructions, said :) . It didn’t start-off too well for me. But oh well – don’t we all have our ‘blonde’ moments. No offence meant here, but just a figure of speech. I very much doubt though, if very many blondes are reading this post, anyway :)

Moving on. A soft-spoken lady, dressed in a Chef’s hair-net welcomed me and gestured for me to sit where ever I wanted. I sat myself in one corner on a four-seater. She handed me the menu.

 

 

The menu was overwhelming to say the least. I couldn’t make up mind as to what I wanted. However being an absolute lover of middle-eastern food, I was scanning the menu for some thing middle-eastern. On the reverse, I found – Falafel, Lebanese breads with assorted dips, Shawarmas. My joy was short lived. These were ‘special’ items only made by 'appointment’ a.k.a on a 24 hours pre-order. The soft-spoken lady once again came to my rescue, as she approached my table, with a gentle stoop. Incidentally, by then I had spotted a ‘Mediterranean Lemon / Garlic Chicken’. This caught my fancy. I went ahead and placed the order for it. It comes with a side of steamed vegetables and rice/sesame bun. The menu has everything from Dimsums to Shrimps to Prawn Cocktails to Au-Gratin to Lasagna to Thai Currys to Indonesian Peanut Chicken to Greek Mousaka to  কাতলা মাছের ঝোল (home-style fish-curry) ! Nondon had actually counted the number of different cuisines, they all added up to 20 !

A few minutes before my order was served, I let the proverbial cat out of the bag. I confessed to the soft-spoken lady about that I clandestinely ‘write-by-the-night’. ‘Oh how lovely !’ . She exclaimed. ‘Who do you write for ?’. There was a pause. ‘I write for myself’ – I replied, in other words ‘I blog !’. I am yet to win my first multi-million-dollar book deal yet was the inference :)

There were 2 other set of diners, other than me. I didn’t want to be hogging all her time, so I just asked for a few minutes either before or after lunch. So that we could sit down and talk ! She joined me in a few minutes, while I sipped on my sweet-n-salty-fresh-lime soda. We started chatting and there was instant chemistry ! A foodie and a chef, nothing gets deadlier than that now !

She introduced herself as Bibi Sarkar, hence the name. Bibi has been in business for about 25 years. It all started out in the year 1986 in Golpark, selling Momos and Thukpas. 1986 – I still used to wear suspenders to school back then, and had a lot more head hair !  She slowly branched out to other cuisines, expanded her repertoire, including catering for private parties. She moved to a Ballygunge Circular Road, where she ran a 50+ seater restaurant. Cut to present day. Due to some unavoidable circumstances and union trouble, she had to shut her business down at that BCR location. However she has fond memories of that place, as that is where she catapulted to fame. She re-opened this new location, either late last year or earlier this year. Sorry my memory seems to be failing me on this, I should have made notes.

Bibi Di, hesitatingly allowed me to take a picture of her ! 

I was completely engrossed in a conversation with the enigmatic Bibi di, when she reminded me of not letting the food get cold. I started chowing down. The preparation was an aromatic experience. Soft yet chewy chicken in subtle flavors of garlic, herbs, crushed red-pepper took over my senses. While I relished my lunch, Bibi Di went around talking to the other patrons and taking their orders with a soft-pat on their back and a pleasant demeanor. It seemed more like a private-sit-down-lunch where Bibi di playing the perfect hostess. All the diners seemed to be regulars and knew her personally. Bibi Sarkar is ‘Bibi di’ to some, ‘Bibi Mashi’ to others. Partial transcripts of some comments, that were overheard were as following :

বিবি দী কী খাব যায়ে বলো তো (Bibi di, what can I have today. Why don’t you suggest something ?)
বিবি দী সেই দীন আমরা কী সুপ খেছিলাম গো (Bibi di, what soup did we have the other day ?)
বিবি দী মায়ের জন্য কিছু একটা ফিস starter suggest  করো না, please ! (Bibi di, can you please make Mum, a Fish-based appetizer)

* Bibi di, sorry for eavesdropping but I had to do this :)

You get the drift, this is the sort of place you can go to with your kids and little ones, and Bibi di would rustle something up from her kitchen to suit their palate, while they fish out a Disney Classic. It is the sort of a place where you and your kid can pick a book from neatly lined book-shelves while you wait for your meal to be served.

By the time I finished my main-course, I was craving for some starters. So I took Bibi di’s help again and ordered myself some *Lahem bin Azin – Lamb stuffed baked puffs*.

These babies are served with small bowls of Hummus and Baba Ghanouj. I absolutely relished these and licked the ‘dip’ bowls clean with my fingers.  Bibi di, is into catering as well. Me and her discussed the possibility of her helping with my annual ritual of Christmas BBQ. Bibi’s is open through the week from noon to 10 and also takes reservations for lunch/dinners. If you are just in mood for that Spanish Paella, one fine morning - just call ahead and book yourself a table !

By now, the movie plans had been shelved. The food was just too good for me to consider otherwise. As I overstayed, I wrapped it up with a Mocha Gateau for dessert. Below is an aerial shot of the Gateau !

 

Done with the meal, Bibi Di and I got talking - about food, schooling, family, and about life in general. I complimented Bibi di and promised to return. It would take me at least a couple of dozen visits, if not more; to try everything on her menu. So now you know where to find me during weekends :) I now have a NEW friend and ‘Thy name is Bibi di’ :)

Fun Fact: Bibi’s is a family run business. Her husband actively participates in running it. They together have a 10 year old fairy who already cooks and helps her Mum. So there you go, Bibi di does not have to worry about her legacy :)

I clicked some more pictures with Bibi di’s express permission and they are re-produced here to give you an idea of what this place is all about !

Vidisha’s Lifestyle Boutique

Vidisha’s store would remind you of the ‘Shop Around The Corner’ run by the affable Meg Ryan in the movie You have got mail !. And the comparison does not end here, it is quite literally a shop around the corner on the stretch of road commonly referred to as ‘Kwality Bus Stop’ in common Salt Lake parlance. For any one from Salt Lake, this location needs no explanation or introduction. For others, it is a common landmark on Salt Lake’s busiest thoroughfare – The First Avenue !

My wife and I had chanced upon this store by sheer luck. Had it not been for their ‘Diwali Spread’ as Bidisha likes to call it, I might have missed it completely. Diwali being the ‘Festival Of Lights’ that it is, this store am sure is lighting up more than a few homes. I visited it on a Sunday evening and they were quite busy.

I saw a charming woman elegantly dressed in a white sari talking to the customers in the store, and answering all their questions without a crease on her forehead. It took no genius to figure out, that the lady was Bidisha the store owner.

I went around the store and reviewed what it had to offer. Especially attracted to the different types of floor lamps and hanging lamps on display. The lighting created the perfect ambience. You needed to be here to see, how appropriate lighting can set up the mood. 

 

All the lamp shades in this store are hand-made with organic materials like hand-made paper and/or threads. They are both ethnic and chic at the same time. I had personally been looking around a floor lamp to light up my den (my study/workplace/SoHo) . It seemed this was the closest I was to get something I wanted. After all writing is all about appropriate lighting :)

This was an interesting hanging lamp-shade, with cave-paintings on hand-made paper. These shades are lined with heat-proof fabric.  They have on display a number of other ‘Diwali’ knick-knacks on display other than an interesting array of lifestyle products. Some pictures are included below.

After spending more than few minutes to see what was on offer. It was time to buy something, to justify my presence in the store. Taking the opportunity, I enlisted Bidisha’s help. I walked up to her and asked her suggestion about which lamp would best suit my needs. After several ifs and buts, below is the picture of the one that I decided to go in for. Sorry, Bidisha for being such a tough customer :) I always prefer dimly lit environs, rather than in-your-face lighting and this-baby has livened up my study ! Feel free to blame my cheap camera phone for a grossly under-lit photo. 

While I was at it, I also picked up some decorative candles, ‘diyas’, floaters and tea-lights. Bidisha’s a fixed price store, so don’t go haggling over prices. But in keeping with the festive spirit, she is offering a gift on purchases over a certain amount, I would think. I got my gift a nice terracotta table-top portrait of ‘Ganesha’.

Finally, I thought it might be a good idea to chat-up with Bidisha. I told her about AllThingsCoolKata and what I do for a living. I asked her how she got started ? She obliged gleefully by taking a few minutes out of a busy Sunday evening, while her phone rang incessantly. Bidisha went to Loreto Bowbazar and got started with candle making while she was in middle school. She cultivated her flair for this art, with support from her mother. Once she was out of school and later college, she undertook a professional course in candle making. There has been no looking back from there. At some point her mother suggested that with some effort she could make this her profession and so she has – from candle making to really beautiful lamp shades to cane furniture to other lifestyle products.

In this picture you see Bidisha and Ratna di(Left to right). Bidisha runs her enterprise with unrelenting support from Ratna di - her cohort. Whom she proudly introduced to me as some one without whose help this was not possible. Ratna di has stood by her through thick and thin !

During my conversation with Bidisha, I kept on switching to ‘বাংলা’ occasionally. No Bengali can ever resist the urge to ask another fellow Bengali, if he/she was one too. Now given my cherubic looks, I often get mistaken as ‘অবাঙালী’ :) . However my chaste accent almost always does the trick ! But to be truthful, I tell people what I always do that - I am ‘বাঙালি’ by ‘Karma’ as I am married to a card-carrying one.

Bidisha was very gracious all through and all my attempt at slapstick humor and tongue-in-cheek remarks, kept falling flat on it’s face. I stopped short for the fear of committing a ‘Bushism’ :)

She asked me to bring my wife to her store. I promised, I would.