I am not a big fan of their doodh-Cola, although I understand why it would be on any list of things to eat/drink in Kolkata. Their tea, however, is a favourite of mine. A couple of days back my cousin sister drove us around town after midnight for a cup of tea at Balwant Singh's Dhaba. I am not sure what it is they do that makes the tea different, but I really, really like it. Their aloo-paratha is also very good. Here are a few photographs I clicked at and around the Dhaba.
And while we are on the subject of road-side tea, let me also share a couple of photographs taken at Shyamol's tea-stall, that is just outside Gate 4, Jadavpur University. My good friend, Lav Kanoi, was leaving town in a few days' time, and while I don't usually carry my camera to the University regularly, on this occasion it just happened to be there somehow. I took the photograph from his "platform". I asked him for permission. He looked baffled and said "এটা তো তোমাদের সবাইকার দোকান" ("This shop is for all of you."). It is true that occasionally we pour tea for ourselves, even though the making of things is always his department. Once when he had run out of Maggi, and I was feeling particularly desperate, I offered to get the raw material for him, and he happily cooked it for me.
Shyamol's tea stall has become something of a permanent fixture in our lives. He couldn't have set his shop up that long ago. It's been a couple of years may be. But in the short time he has won many hearts. He never counts the number of cups or ভাঁড় of tea that we drink, or the money we hand over. On festive occasions one can find his shop lit up with disco-lights, and his playlist never ceases to amaze. Apart from tea, he has a number of other things on his menu-card. There is a real menu-card, by the way, one which he got printed on the same day as these photographs were taken. The aforementioned Maggi at Shyamol is truly special, but he does a great variety of things with eggs. The peculiar thing about Shyamol is that he is very unpredictable. On a perfectly good day, he may choose not to open simply because he doesn't feel like it. This is accepted gracefully on the whole, even if with momentary and immediate disgrunt.
I remember Shyamol setting up his shop. He began by selling momos and soup, sometime during the winter session of 2009-2010 (I think.) Then, in the summer, he became a lemonande and juice stand. That lasted for a couple of months. Then he shut shop for a month or so and reopened as a roll shop. That also did not last too long. Probably Abhijeet's stranglehold on the roll market was too strong to break. :P
ReplyDeleteHe became a tea shop sometime around the beginning of 2011, if I'm not mistaken. It can't be before that because he wasn't there before our Masters. People used to go to Nepalda's or Mama'r dokan. Many still do.
Sorry about long anecdotal post, but campus timelines are very interesting. :D
Haha. Long Anecdotal Post is most welcome. I had no idea he was there that early. I remember the shops, the earlier manifestations, you refer to but I had never connected them to Shyamol. Perhaps Abhijeet's stranglehold did to him what his does to the Denzong guys who keep coming back with the hope of setting up a franchisee outlet.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, while I unflinchingly go on spelling it as 'Shyamol', the man himself I believe writes it without the 'y'. I see you too have gone for the more literal transcription.
I'm pretty sure they were Shyamol's shops but perhaps the man himself will confirm this. I had heard that the Denzong guys were trying to set up an outlet and was surprised they weren't managing. Strange are the proclivities of JU people. :P
DeleteAlso, I did not know Shyamol spells it without the 'y'. I went for the 'y' because I usually write "Shyam" with a 'y'.
It's lovely how Shamol smiles benevolently at all our chyangrami, which often involves dancing. It doesn't strike me as a very gendered space at all :)
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