The NYT Beat Me To It September 21, 2006
Posted by KG in Bangla.trackback
The Grey Lady devoted an entire article to the topic of adda a few months ago. I can’t believe I missed it. Stateside Bengali friends, where were you on this? I need your help on quality linkage.
The Coffee House mentioned in the article is a mandatory destination for us when the family goes to Calcutta. According to G. family mythology, my super interesting Marxist-Humanist paternal grandparents had their wedding reception there. Not mentioned in the article are the low quality of the Coffee House’s coffee or the Raj-era uniforms the servers wear. Its a fun place to pass the time, but I’d say as far as Calcutta destinations go its really only interesting for about ten minutes. And it doesn’t even have wi-fi. (The day the Coffee House gets wi-fi… well, heads will roll.) I haven’t been there in a couple years, but I’m doing a brief two day trip to the City of Joy a week from today to see some family. Plenty of time for some quality adda.
Let me know when you’ll be here. It’s currently the City of Flood, and I’m standing here at the corner of Ho Chi Minh Sarani and Holy Sh-t! just looking at the water and avoiding the things that float by.
I actually loved Coffee House when I visited in February, but it was the first time I’d been (to Kolkata even), so I have nothing to compare it to. The guys behind the counter were able and eager conversationalists, and I found a corner in the top room and hauled out my laptop and wrote for a few hours. No wi-fi, it’s true, but its absense has a direct positive correlation with my productivity. And the space is quite beautiful! http://www.flickr.com/photos/94902018@N00/106342937/in/set-72057594064856044/