In India, the café culture, if one may dare to hazard a guess, was largely confined to Kolkata. There are two famous coffee houses there: one in the central business district, almost opposite ‘The Statesman’, and the other on College Street, the city’s university area. Take in the atmosphere in the ‘Coffee House’ at Calcutta University as people passionately debate politics, the revolution, fashion, etc., over cha (tea) and singaras (samosas).
 

 
The Coffee House is the meeting place for the intelligentsia of Kolkata (Calcutta), especially students and teachers of the University. The air is rent with tobacco smoke and voices of the guests as they indulge in animated discussions of all topics under the sun, politically correct or incorrect as the case might be. The place is not exactly for the lovers of nature and quiet and those who want to escape air pollution, but if you happen to like the ambience of a café on the left bank of the Seine in Paris, you would love it here. Adjacent to the Coffee House and through the same entrance is the Rupa & Co. showroom, an excellent bookstore. And remember that while you sit listening to the din and fill your lungs with intellectual tar, as you sip at your coffee and eat your chicken afghani and toast remember that that the opposite chair may once have been occupied by Professor Jagadish Chandra Bose who beat Marconi at inventing radio communication, or by Professor Satyen Bose who probably wrote his correspondence with Einstein, his co-author of the famous Bose-Einstein Statistics, right here, or Professor Raman wrote his Nobel prize winning thesis on diffraction. And for those who would say that the coffee house is merely a ghost of its past, understand that the Nobel prize winning economist for 1998 participated in discussions similar to the one that the young man in faded jeans and a batik panjabi (kurta) is engaging in today. Kamal Kumar Mazumdar visualised much of his ‘Antarjali Yatra’ in that Coffee House. It is considered a great piece of Bengali literature. Satyajit Ray perhaps sketched ‘Pather Panchali’ in his mind’s eye as he sat over his coffee. That film created history giving a new meaning to Indian cinema.

The Central Kolkata (Calcutta) Coffee House, established during the dark era of World War II, saw an array of celebrities. R P Gupta, a historian and expert on Job Charnock’s Mid-Day Halt, once told that he and his friends never missed a day visiting that café. The ‘adda’ (Bengali word for small talk/debate/argument, call it what you may), fuelled by steaming cups of coffee, acted as tonic. The learned men who gathered there went back refreshed and recharged to begin their cerebral battles all over again.

Albert Hall (today’s Coffee House), the Albert Street coffee house at Calcutta University, was the hub center of Kolkata’s intellectuals, politicians & leaders of different walks of life. After independence the place was the site of Indian Coffee House, a coffee shop run by department of Industry, Government of India. It came to a close in 1958 when the workers decided to run the house by themselves and finally gave birth to Indian Coffee Workers Cooperative society Limited. Under the able administration of the workers, this society has opened up branches in different places such as Jadavpur, NTPC Farakka (Industrial canteen), NTPC Kahlgaon (Industrial canteen) Cafeteria, Farakka, DVC Training Institute (Chandrapura). College Street Coffee House is mainly serving the needs of students, Intellectuals and men from almost all stratums of life. The sales turn over has greatly increased due to co-operation, support and sympathy of customers.

The College Street coffee house often played Cupid for budding love. Many girls and many boys recall with a tinge of nostalgia that the waiters would usually leave them alone. But that cafe also doubled up as a centre of heated political exchanges, and some aver that Naxalism grew out of the cups of coffee served there.

Join the intellectuals and students and artists at the Indian Coffee House near the campus, a Kolkata institution and landmark for years. All around are folks, abuzz with thoughts and ideas. The atmosphere is great. Also, they have really good coffee. It is way too hot for regular coffee. But even the ‘cold coffee’ is absolutely superb. The Indian taste for super-sweet coffee work wonders in a cold drink. None of the cloying aftertaste you would usually get from dumping in sugar with a basting spoon, just real thirst-quenching satisfaction, like a Limca.

Hardly any Kolkatan can be found who has not visited the Coffee House at least once in his/her lifetime. The regulars of Coffee House have developed a personal rapport with most of the bearers. It is the favourite haunt intellectuals and till date, there is high probability of finding a celebrity film director or an established painter or a budding musician shaking shoulders with the who’s who, and sipping infusion at Coffee House. This is the spirit of Coffee House.

Manna Dey, sang of the Coffee House in Kolkata:

‘Shei shaatjon nei, aaj tebilta shudhu ache, shat-ti peyaala aajo khali nei, aki she bagaane aaj, esheche notun kuri, shudhu shei shediner mali nei, koto shwapner rod othe ei coffee housey, koto shwapno meghe dheke jai, koto jon elo gelo, koto jon-i aashbe, coffee house-ta shudhu roye jaay’