of late, there has been a lot of coffee conversations, What with the Dalgona craze.! Also with the fact that we were confined at home with very little beverage options… But then, I have always been a coffee kind of girl!

And although we are spoilt for choices of coffee places in our city these days, my heart will always go out to the sheer nostalgia of “Coffee House”. As a student of Presidency College (and it was still college and not University in our days) life was pretty much sorted between Pramod da’s canteen and College Street Coffee House.. A whole lot of bunked classes or college after hours were spent there over glasses of cold coffee. I always preferred the cold coffee over the hot cuppa at Coffee House. But the charm also very definitely lay in all the other goodies we would have with the coffee.. The chicken sandwiches were soft, filled generously with boiled, salted and peppered chicken and the thick white sandwich bread was always well buttered. The chicken cutlet and mutton chops were accompanied with cut salad which was mostly chopped onions and cucumbers dipped in lime juice and a dollop of tomato ketch up and mustard.. The Kobiraaji cutlet with the fish/chicken or mutton patty ensconced in the light fluffy egg fries was something we salivated over. But the greatest accompaniment to the multiple glasses of cold coffee was always the conversation!

College Street Coffee House is a piece of precious Heritage in a city which loves its Coffee (Tea) Table conversations. It traces its history starting off as the coffee joint of the Albert Hall .Much later its name changed to Coffee House.. Located where it is, it was always the meeting ground for bright eyed students and the litterateurs .A regular haunt for all political and cultural intellectuals , The Coffee House has hosted innumerable luminaries including the two Nobel Laureates Amartya Sen and Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee . Its quite amusing to think that this one institution with the tall thick walls and long ceiling fans have quite seen them all,,, has been witness to so many thoughts and talks through the ages.

My memory is always that the Coffee House being forever full and we all having to wait our turn. The Waiters, some of them still wearing pugrees would buzz in and out, seating the Coffee House aspirants, taking orders, getting the food, in their time practiced methodology. Although always full, one would not feel hurried. and get adequate time to relish it all~ the coffee, the pakora or cutlet, the conversation and the quaint ambience , each time coming away with a feeling of being a tiny part of its history .

Coffee House still retains its uniqueness! Even after all these years the menu is still basic with its own brand of goodies.There is no Cappuccino or Americano on the menu. It is still a choice between Cold coffee and Hot coffee . Almost like it says that if you want the fancy stuff… go somewhere else. What you get here you will not get anywhere else. You will get to be a part of a living legacy.

Twenty years since College. And yet, my visits to College street is still incomplete without a peep in at Rupa Book Store,, Chuckervertty Chatterjee & Co and Indian Coffee House, all housed at 15 Bankim Chatterjee Street, College Sqauare.. Even now I wait for a table very often sharing it with strangers and ending up ..sharing stories with someone who you will never meet again…

The last time I went there, I ended up sharing my table with a young student from the districts who had taken a local train to come and buy some books from College Street, We chatted about life experiences and dreams. He offered me a cigarette and when I jokingly told him I only smoked cigars, he excused himself , rushed out and got me a cigar. And so we chatted some more , I smoking the cigar, he smoking his cigarettes. over multiple glasses of the smoothest cold coffee, Both of us , bonding in that moment and soaking in Coffee House memories of overflowing conversations…across generations, across time!

Notes : Pictures sourced through Internet