This place in India puts conversations above everything - Indian Coffee House or College Street Coffee House of Kolkata

 What makes India beautiful? There is food and there are the festivals. India is a filtering mesh for an ancient civilization. What passes through it will emerge as a great idea and a great way to live.

Festivals are for conversations. Family outings are for conversations too. Recently we have the mobile phone taking over a large part of our daily routine. So anything which facilitates a chat will always be a welcome change. 

Cafe culture is also a recently things. At least that is what the kids of today think. But did you know that such a culture already existed in Bengal. It is called as the Adda Culture. Basically is describes long conversations between a group of people sitting together sipping a cup of chai and some light snacks. There is no restriction on the topic but keep in mind that no one in the group judges anyone else. 

It is a great stress buster which is what people realized during the long period of COVID induced isolation. People started taking up revenge travelling to protest the government imposed restrictions. 

College Street - The students hub

College Street begins at the intersection of Nirmal Chandra Street with the Bepin Behari Ganguly Street at Bow Bazar. This intersection is locally called Bowbazar More. From here the street moves north to meet the intersection of Mahatma Gandhi Road to Bidhan Sarani Road. This is a very busy intersection with the book market and shops and traffic jostling for space. Except for the ferries which is some distance away, the Blue Line Metro, Tram Route No 5 and scores of Buses from all parts of Kokata can get you here. 

This street is also known by its local name Boi Para which means Book Town. With so many institutes around, it naturally evolved into a street side second hand books shop. For students looking for books at a bargain, this is paradise. In no time, major book stores started setting up shops here and publishers set up their offices. Most of the street is full of small shops which sell the books related to the various courses. If so much reading material is available people know that if they come here, they will find what they are looking for. People from outside the city also must be making a journey here in search of books at a bargain. 

After being in existence for so many years, it has now become a repository for old and rare books which are out of circulation, provided you can find one. 

What students mostly do and so do adults

Normally it is safe to assume that where there are student and where there is a market, there has to be eating places. In Mumbai we call such a place, khau gali. There are a lot of iconic eateries around College Street. In fact two of the heritage restaurants of Kolkata are right there, Swadhin Bharat Hindu Hotel and Dilkhusha Cabin. These places are student friendly and offer meals which are traditional and tasty,

But there is just one thing missing in both these restaurants which is made up by another one, a place to sit and chat. Indian Coffee House has become the exact such place.

As you step in, you will be hit by a wave of conversations. There is hardly anyone on a mobile and sitting alone. People use this place to come and talk. I would like to bet that many people especially choose this place so that they can sit and talk. 

Conversation lead to ideas and ideas lead to a revolution

There is a long list of freedom fighters, political leaders, writers and artists coming here to work on their ideas. They have primarily done this by either sitting and thinking on their own or group chat with friends. All these ideas have led to revolutions, sometimes affecting the history and timelines. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru for example launched the Quit India Movement from this place. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose came up with the idea of Azad Hind Fauj here. Satyajit Ray wrote about his poems from this place. 

As you step into this place, if you are aware about the history, you feel part of this iconic place and who knows, you might get the idea for your next revolution sipping a cup of coffee with friends here. 

I have collected the history of Indian Coffee House Kolkata in my blog article.

The History of Indian Coffee House