Indian Coffee House - Buddhist temple - Thakurdalans
This Sunday, we decided we should continue our cultural rambles in the North during this festive season. No point unnecessarily courting Dengue in the Botanic gardens. We met at 9am in front of Statesman House to have breakfast at the Indian Coffee House in order to visit the Buddhist temple and library off College Street as well as several thakur dalans, one with winged mercurys in the courtyard…

We joined three of the square tables at the Indian Coffee House to seat the hashers. It was Barry, Twila, Rosie, Paurush, Francois, Himanshu’s first time to the coffee house. The Indian Coffee House, that doesn’t serve tea, opens its portals at 9 am. I phoned in advance to see if they’d be open on 2nd October, a National Holiday because of Gandhiji’s B’day. Having missed the entrance to College Street between the School of Tropical Medicine and School of Hygiene we took an illegal u turn at the Mahatma Gandhi Metro station with tiled Mural of Gandhiji. It was my serendipitous Sunday hash homage to Gandhiji!

The Indian Coffee House originally known as Albert Hall is now a cooperative and the bearers in turbans had me write down our complicated breakfast orders of scrambled egg on toast, mutton omelettes, the very popular adda snack of pakoras, bread, toast, chicken sandwiches, egg sandwiches and trays of coffee and black coffee called Infusion.

There was some confusion about Moghlai parathas and fans of these olde worlde eateries may have to go back to sample that another afternoon as well as the cheap paratha kasha Mangsho along with the Kochuri and Daal or luchi aludam at Putiram beside the Calcutta Corporation building behind the College Square tank.

The pandal around the water body is huge by any standards and Francois hared off to take a look at the bamboo scaffolding and swimming area. Overlooking it is the Mahabodhi Society with its Buddhist Vihara where we admired the statues, gongs and other relics. We then walked to the Radha Nath Mullick Lane to see residences of the Basu Mullick family with their typical Thakurdalans. The bonedi bari pujas are always open house so anyone can walk into the courtyards during morning anjali and evening aarti. We then made our way back to the cars past Hare school aka Hindu College or Presidency College which this year celebrated 150 years.

The main days of the Puja are Shashti –Monday 10th, Saptami Tuesday 11th. Ashtami/ Nabami Wednesday 12th, Dashami Thursday 13th.

The hash group will also organize pandal hopping with a Bengali lunch and a bisarjan cruise organised by Chiru, his yearly boatride to see the Belur Math immersion.