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Adda! The College Street Coffee House
“The Coffee House on 15 Bankim Chandra Street is legendary – its character and ambience deeply etched in the Bengali intellectual, political, artistic and cultural ethos. For many, it is the place, not the coffee, that is the addiction…” It is known for the finest of the quintessential Bengali adda – where friends engaged in thoughtful debate, reflection, creative verse, gossip, and political commentary. Radical Left politics and radical and innovative ideas in the arts were defining features of the Coffee House.
Poets and writers gathered to read and share their works and several literary magazines were forged at Coffee House. Romances bloomed at Coffee House – the long row of single tables in the upper balcony was favored by couples desiring privacy and anonymity. It was always and still is a place for friends to meet. The Coffee House remains a worker’s cooperative and is the oldest surviving coffee cooperative in the world. In 1994 it was recognized as a cultural center of India by the Supreme Court and declared a Heritage Building.
Mala Mukerjee and I decided we would capture the atmosphere of the Coffee House, through portrait photographs and interviews with the icons of Kolkata who were regulars there. Twenty-six leaders in their fields graciously shared their memories. They are public intellectuals, writers, and publishers Samik Bandhopadhyay, Gayatri Spivak, Hiranmay Karlekar, Jawhar Sircar, Rudrangshu Mukherjee, Kunal Basu, Kalyan Ghose and Utpal Shome. Soumitra Chatterjee, Alokananda Roy Banerjea, Usha Ganguly, Dhritiman Chatterjee, Anindya Chatterjee are from the performing arts world. Rabin Mandal, Jogen Chowdhury, Shuvaprasanna Bhattacharya and Arun Ganguly represent the visual arts. Ashim Chatterjee, Krishna Bose, Malini Bhattacharya and Sugato Bose made political careers. Partha Ghose, Sabyasachi Bhattacharya and Bikash Sinha are leading scientists. We also interviewed Susim Mukul Datta and Jeeja Ghosh who made their respective mark as a business leader and disability rights activist. Collectively their reminiscences recall the tumultuous and changing intellectual, political, and cultural waves that swept through the space from the 1950s to the 1990s.
We were able to interview the late Rabin Mandal, Usha Ganguly and Krishna Bose. Rabin Mandal spoke with us of the many friends he made there including “Manik Babu (Satyajit Ray) who later transferred his affections to the other Coffee House on Central Avenue.” Usha credits the Coffee House as “the place where she developed her political sensibilities and her social awareness. Krishna Bose would rush there for a tea break granted by her favorite professor, Tarak Sen. We were sad not to have had an interview with Nabaneeta Deb Sen who many remembered from their days at the Coffee House as a brilliant poet and young student at Presidency College where she studied. The late Soumitra Chatterjee generously shared his memories of Coffee House, abridged and translated by Samik Bandhopadhyay from Coffee House-er Dinguli (Those Coffee House Days) for this book.
Art, film, and theater critic, Samik Bandhopadhyay, discussed how the Little Magazine culture – a proliferation of new periodicals that started in the 1950s and remained vibrant till the 1990s – with many tables functioning virtually as literary salons. Ekshan, edited by Soumitra Chattopadhyay and Nirmalya Acharya started at the Coffee House. Anindya Chatterjee singer, lyricist and film-maker, was a regular in the early nineties. His first song Mouno Mukhorota, references the famed Infusion, “Sanmati Proyoshay, Infusion Cholke jay.” He pays homage to the Coffee House when he is in North Kolkata, participating in the annual blood donation camp.
Jawhar Sircar talks about the Coffee House being a place where he and other students practiced and honed their intellectual and debating skills. “The Coffee House provided an opportunity to meet a cross-section of Calcutta – students from colleges within a couple of kilometers, such as Scottish, Medical, Maulana Azad and Saint Xavier’s, as everyone would come to the Coffee House. Even in the worst days of the Naxalite violence, it hummed with excitement and was a forum for the City’s intellectuals.”
Shuvaprasanna Bhattacharya described the Coffee House as a “marvelous meeting place for a range of people from the cultural sphere of Bengal. His visits to Coffee House were sometimes at the request of publishers or authors or poets: he would be asked to do an illustration or design the cover of a poetry book. It was in this way that he met Purnendu Patri, Khaled Chowdhury and many other artists and theater personalities.
Ashim Chatterjee, affectionately known as Comrad Kaka was a regular from 1960 to 1968 and found Coffee House particularly attractive because unlike party meetings, at the Coffee House one could discuss an idea without an agenda. He was able to speak to people from many different parties and hear their perspectives. “It is from the clash of ideas that creativity is sparked that enables a poet to write poetry, a dancer to dance and an artists or theater person to express themselves. The Coffee House provided precisely that space.”
Distinguished scientist Sabyasachi Bhattacharya was a regular visitor at Coffee House when the Naxal movement was at its pitch and Presidency a hotbed of revolutionary activity which he remembers as a violent and coercive political environment. Those considered non-revolutionary were considered “counter-revolutionary,” labelled as a “class enemy and a target of attack.” For he and his friends who were not part of the Naxal movement, the Coffee House was a refuge. “….we were not policed. We could talk and engage with subjects that mattered to us.” Sabyasachi was passionately interested in Bengali literature and poetry and it was in the Coffee House that he met personalities like Tarapada Roy, Tushar Roy, Sunil Gangopadhyay and Soumitra Chatterjee.
Coffee House, still remains busy on weekends. Visitors and regulars alike are keenly aware of its aura. Abhijit Dey, a marketing manager and a member of the Coffee House Welfare Board still treats Coffee House as an ailment for all cures – it lifts his spirits when he is down, when sick it makes him feel well, when lonely he finds company there and “if regulars like me can’t hear, can’t sleep or whatever it is that is bothering us, a visit to the Coffee House solves our problems.”
The book has over 50 photographs, mostly color, and includes photos from the past of well-known personalities at the Coffee House and staff members who have always been appreciated by Coffee House goers. Our book is available through Notion Press: https://notionpress.com/read/adda.
Photo credits: Mala Mukerjee
Poets and writers gathered to read and share their works and several literary magazines were forged at Coffee House. Romances bloomed at Coffee House – the long row of single tables in the upper balcony was favored by couples desiring privacy and anonymity. It was always and still is a place for friends to meet. The Coffee House remains a worker’s cooperative and is the oldest surviving coffee cooperative in the world. In 1994 it was recognized as a cultural center of India by the Supreme Court and declared a Heritage Building.
Mala Mukerjee and I decided we would capture the atmosphere of the Coffee House, through portrait photographs and interviews with the icons of Kolkata who were regulars there. Twenty-six leaders in their fields graciously shared their memories. They are public intellectuals, writers, and publishers Samik Bandhopadhyay, Gayatri Spivak, Hiranmay Karlekar, Jawhar Sircar, Rudrangshu Mukherjee, Kunal Basu, Kalyan Ghose and Utpal Shome. Soumitra Chatterjee, Alokananda Roy Banerjea, Usha Ganguly, Dhritiman Chatterjee, Anindya Chatterjee are from the performing arts world. Rabin Mandal, Jogen Chowdhury, Shuvaprasanna Bhattacharya and Arun Ganguly represent the visual arts. Ashim Chatterjee, Krishna Bose, Malini Bhattacharya and Sugato Bose made political careers. Partha Ghose, Sabyasachi Bhattacharya and Bikash Sinha are leading scientists. We also interviewed Susim Mukul Datta and Jeeja Ghosh who made their respective mark as a business leader and disability rights activist. Collectively their reminiscences recall the tumultuous and changing intellectual, political, and cultural waves that swept through the space from the 1950s to the 1990s.
We were able to interview the late Rabin Mandal, Usha Ganguly and Krishna Bose. Rabin Mandal spoke with us of the many friends he made there including “Manik Babu (Satyajit Ray) who later transferred his affections to the other Coffee House on Central Avenue.” Usha credits the Coffee House as “the place where she developed her political sensibilities and her social awareness. Krishna Bose would rush there for a tea break granted by her favorite professor, Tarak Sen. We were sad not to have had an interview with Nabaneeta Deb Sen who many remembered from their days at the Coffee House as a brilliant poet and young student at Presidency College where she studied. The late Soumitra Chatterjee generously shared his memories of Coffee House, abridged and translated by Samik Bandhopadhyay from Coffee House-er Dinguli (Those Coffee House Days) for this book.
Art, film, and theater critic, Samik Bandhopadhyay, discussed how the Little Magazine culture – a proliferation of new periodicals that started in the 1950s and remained vibrant till the 1990s – with many tables functioning virtually as literary salons. Ekshan, edited by Soumitra Chattopadhyay and Nirmalya Acharya started at the Coffee House. Anindya Chatterjee singer, lyricist and film-maker, was a regular in the early nineties. His first song Mouno Mukhorota, references the famed Infusion, “Sanmati Proyoshay, Infusion Cholke jay.” He pays homage to the Coffee House when he is in North Kolkata, participating in the annual blood donation camp.
Jawhar Sircar talks about the Coffee House being a place where he and other students practiced and honed their intellectual and debating skills. “The Coffee House provided an opportunity to meet a cross-section of Calcutta – students from colleges within a couple of kilometers, such as Scottish, Medical, Maulana Azad and Saint Xavier’s, as everyone would come to the Coffee House. Even in the worst days of the Naxalite violence, it hummed with excitement and was a forum for the City’s intellectuals.”
Shuvaprasanna Bhattacharya described the Coffee House as a “marvelous meeting place for a range of people from the cultural sphere of Bengal. His visits to Coffee House were sometimes at the request of publishers or authors or poets: he would be asked to do an illustration or design the cover of a poetry book. It was in this way that he met Purnendu Patri, Khaled Chowdhury and many other artists and theater personalities.
Ashim Chatterjee, affectionately known as Comrad Kaka was a regular from 1960 to 1968 and found Coffee House particularly attractive because unlike party meetings, at the Coffee House one could discuss an idea without an agenda. He was able to speak to people from many different parties and hear their perspectives. “It is from the clash of ideas that creativity is sparked that enables a poet to write poetry, a dancer to dance and an artists or theater person to express themselves. The Coffee House provided precisely that space.”
Distinguished scientist Sabyasachi Bhattacharya was a regular visitor at Coffee House when the Naxal movement was at its pitch and Presidency a hotbed of revolutionary activity which he remembers as a violent and coercive political environment. Those considered non-revolutionary were considered “counter-revolutionary,” labelled as a “class enemy and a target of attack.” For he and his friends who were not part of the Naxal movement, the Coffee House was a refuge. “….we were not policed. We could talk and engage with subjects that mattered to us.” Sabyasachi was passionately interested in Bengali literature and poetry and it was in the Coffee House that he met personalities like Tarapada Roy, Tushar Roy, Sunil Gangopadhyay and Soumitra Chatterjee.
Coffee House, still remains busy on weekends. Visitors and regulars alike are keenly aware of its aura. Abhijit Dey, a marketing manager and a member of the Coffee House Welfare Board still treats Coffee House as an ailment for all cures – it lifts his spirits when he is down, when sick it makes him feel well, when lonely he finds company there and “if regulars like me can’t hear, can’t sleep or whatever it is that is bothering us, a visit to the Coffee House solves our problems.”
The book has over 50 photographs, mostly color, and includes photos from the past of well-known personalities at the Coffee House and staff members who have always been appreciated by Coffee House goers. Our book is available through Notion Press: https://notionpress.com/read/adda.
Photo credits: Mala Mukerjee
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