My Thoughts: The Indian Coffee House

A lot of people were asking me about my next post. I was not able to get enough thoughts or inspiration to write about anything. Finally, when i was having food yesterday in the hostel mess, it striked. A lot of nostalgic feelings come to me when i think about it. This is about a restaurant chain in Kerala, in fact, the biggest restaurant chain in the state.

First, let me tell a little bit about the history. Started by the British in the early 1940's, it was shut down by the Indian Government, due to a policy change in mid 1950's. The thrown out workers took over the branches. Under the leadership of a Communist leader, A K Gopalan, known as AKG, they formed a Co-operative society to run the shut restaurant chain. They renamed it as Indian Coffee House. The first Indian Coffee House was opened at New Delhi on 27 October 1957. Since then,it grewe little by little.

In 1958, Adv T K Krishnan and N S Parameswaran Pillai along with a thrown out employee of The Coffe House started the Kerala edition of the society at Thrissur. Inaugurated by A K Gopalan on 8 March 1958, it became the 4th branch of Indian Coffee House in the country. With nearly 51 branches and still growing, Kerala has the largest number of branches.
Why I said all these is for the people to understand the importance of Indian Coffee House (ICH) in the history and its evolution. This restaurant chain does not boasts any air conditioned cosy environment. I have noticed that whichever branch of ICH, I have been to, they all have the same set of furnitures. Same type of tables and the same model of plastic chairs. I even doubted that the chairs were exclusively made for ICH.

Coming to my personal experiences, I am very much personally attached to the ICH. I love the vegetable cutlets and Medhu Wadas served there. The waitors come in a royal dress with a crown on their head. The masala dosas served there were the favorites of the ladies who is in their mid 40's now.

I was a regular customer at the ICH, since I was 2 or 3. At that time, we were building our new house at the current location. We used to travel around 60 kms every weekend to inspect the progress of our house. There was an ICH right opposite to the Bus Station where we got down. As soon as I reach there, I used to cry like anything to get me a masala dosa from ICH. Most of the times, my dad obliged because my mom too liked the masala dosas there. The masala used in the masala dosa had a speciality. They use beetroot to the masala making it red in colour. Its tasty too. It seems that its their trademark and in no other restaurant will one find such a masala in a masala dosa.

Later, when I reached 12th, I had to go to school b y a ferry. I used to stay in hostel and used to come home monthly, every second saturday. When I come back, I usually miss the ferry, just by a second or two. At Vaikom, the ICH is situated very near to the ferry. So, I used to have cutlets from there. Interesting thing is that, the sauce they give with it is always runny. I always loved the onion and sauce combo. Thats how I liked the cutlets there. Later, I got admitted to an engineering college, where the college canteen used to be the Indian Coffee House. That made me more boded to the place. Good, tasty food at cheap price will be the dream of every college student who gets bored to the regular mess food but don't want to burn holes in their parents' pockets. ICH provided that. In a very short period of time, almost all the waitors there became friends with me.
Unfortunately, there is no ICH in my college now. Anyways, I will never forget the taste of the cutlets and masala dosas from there.