India coffee house was one of the best known hangouts inSrinagar city, situated on the famous Residency Road. I have no idea when itstarted its business in Kashmir, but remember a day of summary 1964, myabsolute favorite time of year when we, as small group of students of nearbyS.P. College, Srinagar made a choice to visit it. With pounding hearts wewalked up the wooden stairs. At the entrance a sign board gave the managementinformation of the coffee House that read as, ‘India coffee House’,’Established: 1940, Management: India coffee board workers co-operativesociety’. Further the footnote read: ‘Satisfaction of the customer is our destination’. The smell of coffee,sniffed in a breeze brightened our mood, the moment we pulled the curtain atthe entrance.
The coffee house was jam packed and looked magnificent withtraditional ‘Khatumbund’ roofing painted in coffee colour. For a while we werein state of stillness, heart in our mouth, dared to pull the chairs around acorner table, and occupied at the Far East end where it was dark, and thecoffee house was already loud. Around same time a waiter dressed like Maharajain Snow white colour uniform, with a red turban, and a robe around the waist, appearedfor taking an order. He politely asked, plain or cream coffee? Any eatery? Wehave roasted nuts, vegetable cutlets, sandwiches, wafers, and omelets in menu,besides cold coffee. Before any of us could respond, he added, “Boys it appearsyou have skipped the classes. Never repeat the action. You guys are too youngfor this place, now since you are here, enjoy the cold coffee, this place willmake you addict ‘I am sure’.
The words of Mr. Mehboob, a waiter here from ‘Lucknow’ wereprophetic. Over the years the relations with him grew. He would always speak inbeautiful Urdu, and served India coffee house (Srinagar branch) for decadestogether, he lead a team of dedicated staff which included ‘Guru’, GhulamQadir, A lone Kashmiri on the staff and many others as managers.
Coffee House Srinagar was a place where many eminentpersonalities have been to at some point of time in their life. Be it lateShamim Ahmad Shamim, or Late Sharif-u-Din, an aspiring politician then, who wasnick named ‘Dandikar’ by his close friends. So many great persons used to visitthe place on daily basis. I remember famous writer and dramatist Late Ali MohdLone, Late G.R. Santosh who had immense love for his Hindu wife ‘Santosh’ asregular visitors. Rubbing shoulders with top politicians, we would spend ourtime and breathe here. I remember it well that I got introduced to the vibrantand legendary politician Late Mr. Shamim A. Shamim, (The then member ofparliament) in the coffee house. During that maiden meeting he took pains toexplain his differences with Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah, which lead to hisseparation from so called the lion of Kashmir. Indeed it was a treat to listento Late Shamim, a genius all-round. God Bless his soul.
Many times we would come face to face with persons like Mr.Wahid Rana of Pillo Modis Satantrwa party and Mohan Charagi, who later becamethe editor of the National Daily ‘Qaumi Awaz.’ All of them were remarkable intheir artistic characters.
Coffee house provided an ideal space to many persons to nurtureand exchange ideas, information etc. Indeed the different types of topics likePalestinian suicide bombing or an Israeli strike, Indo-Pakistan war, rumors,news, and gossip were also carried between coffee house and other places. Ourvisit from S.P. College to coffee house for some time came to a grinding halton the orders of legendary and most loved principal Prof. Saif-u-Din. Non-stopraids and so called surgical strikes led by veteran Prof. G.M. Mir of ChemistryDepartment who caught us red handed skipping academic classes and subsequentfines off course, lessened our visits, only to be revived much later.
With its closure India coffee house that was center of literary, philosophical speculation,political prophecies, gossip, and political fermentation got also buriedforever.