Storm in a teacup: The Kolkata cabins that brewed tea, sherbet and revolution

The kilometre-long stretch of Surya Sen Street veers off from College Street, opposite Medical College and Hospital and runs all the way down to Jagat Talkies cinema hall, near Sealdah. This is an extension of the city’s boi para, where a ramshackle building houses the Favourite Cabin.

The unassuming tea-and-toast enclave operates much in the same fashion it did when Nutan Chandra Barua and his older brother Gaur Chandra started it in 1918. A simple menu of tea, toast and sliced cakes, at a very reasonable price point, has ensured a steady milling of patrons – college students, office goers and young intellectuals. From 1923 to 1937, it was the daily haunt for a band of aspirant writers, who had spearheaded the Kallol movement that brought about a paradigm shift in Bengal’s literary focus. Novelist Achintya Kumar Sengupta reflected in his memoir, “Kallol would have been incomplete without Favourite Cabin.”

Favourite Cabin has had the same menu for years, featuring tea, toast and sliced cakes

Bibhash Lodh

The brainstorming sessions of the firebrand literati that included the likes of Premendra Mitra, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Buddhadeb Basu and Achintya Kumar Sengupta, often extended beyond closing hours. Nutan Chandra and his older brother were active supporters of the Swadeshi movement and the radical atmosphere of this tiny joint attracted a different breed of customers — the city’s freedom fighters. The outer chamber adorned with Buddha paintings (the Baruas are staunch Buddhists, hence the strictly vegetarian menu) leads to a modest inner cubicle where the rebels would rendezvous.

The Barua brothers, while manning the outer chamber kept a sharp eye out for police vigil and signalled whenever the wind was up. The small backdoor by the kitchen was a fast exit point for the rebels.

Today this 104-year old joint feels like a portal to history. A charcoal-fired stove in the backyard’s open kitchen is still used to make the staple fare – crispy brown toast with a generous layer of butter, topped with black pepper. Tea is thickly brewed with milk and sugar as per the North Kolkata tradition. You will find elderly locals absorbed in conversation, or in solitary contemplation with a newspaper.

Urban folklore has it that Kazi Nazrul Islam used to recite his poetry and sing his compositions at the cabin while a young Subhash Chandra Bose sat close by. The owners insist that this indeed happened. And considering how the contemporary firebrands moved around the same orbits, it’s certainly believable.

Bankim Chatterjee Street’s Paramount

Amit Datta

Another hole-in-the-wall, centurion establishment in the area is Paramount, a stone’s throw away from Favourite Cabin. A narrow strip of a shop sliced inside the colonnaded arcade of an ancient building, the sherbet outpost has an intriguing connection to the revolution as well. The slim tables topped with Italian marble, the framed list of luminaries and the small alcoves housing garlanded idols exude an antiquated charm.

Customers enjoying Paramount’s sherbets

Amit Datta

A couple of mounted, antlered stag heads hang from the walls – they’d been mute witnesses to the undercover meetings of M.N. Roy and Pulin Behari Das who hatched strategies to undermine the British rule. Mrigendra Majumdar is the septuagenarian owner who has been running the shop for almost half a century. His father Nihar Majumdar founded the shop in 1918 and closely guarded the covert conferences of the revolutionaries. However, he never joined the discussions lest the police could extract confidential information from him upon interrogation. The British police did have a hunch of the goings-on, and the shop had to bring down its shutters for a few months in 1934.

The 'daab sharbat' at Paramount, originally concocted by Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray

Sugato Mukherjee

If Paramount’s storied connection to history does not transport you back in time, its Daab Sharbat surely will. The signature drink has iced coconut water and chunks of tender kernel floating in a slender tumbler. The recipe hasn’t changed ever since Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray devised it for his close friend, Nihar Ranjan Majumdar. The sherbet still sits proudly on Paramount’s menu.