Coffee
is a stimulant. In India, Coffee House and Tea Shop have been centres of
intellectual activism for decades. But establishment of the day never likes the
thinking class to think and stimulate discourse or debate the ills of the
government and raise voice of dissent.
In
Mumbai, it is not a coffee house but a restaurant that attracted the ire of the
Congress Party not because the eating joint was an ‘adda’ (hub) of thinkers and
intellectuals who discussed and debated the current political situation in the
country. It is like any other restaurant where people go for eating vegetarian
meals and snacks.
The
crime of the owner of the restaurant was that he started thinking and reacting
to the performance of the UPA Government at the Centre intelligently. The bill
of Aditi Restaurant in Mumbai carried a line as a pun on the UPA- “AS PER UPA
GOVT. EATING MONEY (2G, COAL, CWG SCAM) IS A NECESSITY & EATING FOOD IN AC
RESTAURANT IS A LUXURY”
The
restaurant owner was peeved to find that those who eat in an air conditioned
restaurant pay more by way of taxes. Aditi or for that matter majority of
restaurants in Mumbai are air conditioned because of humid weather condition.
The
printed bill was enough provocation for the Youth Congress activists who
attacked the eating joint on Tuesday, July 23, 2013. The Maharashtra Government
instead of booking the Youth Congress activists for vandalism registered a case
of defamation against the restaurant owner. Defaming whom, the UPA Government.
Does the government of the day have any fame to lose?
The
intolerance of the Congress reminds me of the Emergency days. There used to be
a Coffee House in Connaught Place of Delhi, quite famous and popular. For, it
was the host of Delhi’s thinking class, writers, poets, journalists, jurists
and political activists. The Congress then took the view that the Delhi Coffee
House had become a centre of discourse of a class of people who were spreading
dissent and encouraging rebellion against the government and against Indira
Gandhi in particular who was Prime Minister. At the behest of Sanjay Gandhi,
the Coffee House was closed and during the Emergency in 1975 the structure was
demolished. Delhi lost its landmark and thinking class its hub.
Many
years later the Coffee Board of India opened its outlet on Baba Kharag Singh
Marg on the lane that houses State Emporiums. But it never replaced the old
Coffee House that carried a distinct aura and ambiance besides its special
clientele.
I
remember another Coffee House in Patna on New Dak Bungalow Road. In early 1970s
the Coffee Board of India opened a new air conditioned Coffee House, with state
of the art interiors and furniture. It served delicious Dosa, Vada, Idly,
Uthapams etc at reasonable rates. Its coffee had aroma and taste that has not
been lost on me and many others who were regular visitor to this joint even
after decades of its closure.
In
those years there were very few air conditioned restaurant in Patna and there
was no tea or coffee shop there that was air conditioned. So, the Coffee House
attracted the intelligentsia- writers, poets, journalists, lawyers and politicians.
I too was a regular visitor to the Patna Coffee House.
I
used to find some big names entering the Coffee House. Jaya Prakash Narain was
one of them. JP would spend few hours there chatting and discussing the
situation in the country. Poet, Phaniswar Nath Renu and poet Ramdhari Singh
Dinkar were also regulars to the Coffee House. So were leaders like Mahamaya
Prasad Sinha, Dr Purnendu Narain Sinha, Abdul Ghafoor etc.
The
Coffee House closed because the government did not want it to run. The Coffee
Board of India stopped taking interest in running the joint. Its furniture was
getting worn out but was not replaced, its air conditioning plant stopped
working and its food lost delicacy. The aroma of ‘coffee’ was gone. And with
that the Patna Coffee House was shut down for ever.
~R. K. Sinha
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