It only seems proper to begin my new blog on design with what inspires me most...coffee. There has been much noise off late about the Indian Coffee house on MG road shutting down. Suddenly it seems to have become everybody's 'all time favourite joint since forever'. Sadly it was never so, all these years, infact the last I visited two years ago, it was practically empty. I remember even writing about it.... Sipping the brew, watching people pace up and down and twice over again on the pavement, smiles and giggles and shopping bags and children with balloons and newspaper cones of roadside bhelpuri, and you order another cup of coffee, cos one is never enough. The menu isnt lavish; masala dosa, buttered toasts, omelettes, or pakodas and cutlets...but just so prefect, just as mom would make it.
Upstairs, its quieter. It's almost empty. A couple in one corner. An old gentleman reading the newspaper at another end sticks his head out to catch a glimpse of the intruders. We sit by the window on the old sofa torn at the edges, the foam popping out... it's oddly relaxing. We absorb the silence, for a few moments. It's calming. Probably a tad too perfect... makes me a little sqeamish. It was time to leave, get back to our world, the familiarity, the comforts of noise, the crowd, the pressure and deadlines, out of this tiny capsule which had taken us back in time."
"a fine type, a fine coffee, both are INDIAN"
"The reason for my charming smile..INDIAN COFFEE"
Your post reminds me of the coffee house in Kolkata with high ceiling fans, with an old musky smell...and when u think of the place, u think in sepia tones..It still remains the big adda for intellectuals, pseudo intellectuals, clerks, local dadas, local CPM leaders, old uncles and the just-fallen-in-love couples.....been centuries since i visited. And I so agree about the sudden hullabaloo over the closure of the bangalore coffee house-- i never once saw it full. I wish this was a marketing gimmick..a way to get people in :D. Looking forward to smell the coffee here! Keep the stories coming :)
ReplyDeletewhen i read that first line of the second para, i was reminded of the lines from Wordsworth's most wonderful poem, I wandered lonely as a cloud
ReplyDeleteThat floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
the smell of coffee is making its way from Bangalore to Hyderabad...i can smell its entry...