The story goes that whenever MF Husain would travel to Hyderabad, his first order of business would be to walk from Begumpet to his favourite haunt — the Garden Café — for a cup of chai. Barefoot, he would spend hours nursing the cafe’s strong, milky tea, served in porcelain cups and saucers. Once, he even convinced the actress Madhuri Dixit to accompany him to the landmark Irani eatery.
But it isn’t just venerated artists and famous actresses who frequented Garden, and other cafes of its ilk in Hyderabad. From students to businessmen and the working class, the Irani cafes in the city served as the ideal addas for every type of patron, over decades. The cafes Khayyam, Cosmopolitan, Azizia, Madina and Shadab in the Old City were names as ubiquitous and as synonymous with Hyderabad as the Charminar. With time, however, these Irani cafes — famous for their milky tea, brisk (and often brusque) service, and greasy yet satiating food that didn’t hurt the wallet — have been reduced to little more than relics, a throwback to a bygone time.
BEGINNINGS
Why is tea so popular in Hyderabad when other places in South India tend to prefer coffee? Old timers trace it to the arrival of tea companies Lipton and Brooke Bond, who wanted to tap the large metropolitan market. Tea was prepared — with milk, unlike actual Irani tea, which is had black — and served to the men dawdling at the Old City’s many chabutras (meeting points). The drink was free to begin with, but six months later, the companies began charging for the tea service — by which point, most patrons were hooked to it, and amenable to paying for it. Later, when Irani cafes were establishing themselves in the city, tea — as the cheapest item on the menu — was often what drew the most customers.
Ali Asgar, owner of the popular Blue Sea Cafe (estd. 1983), recalls, “Irani cafes were the only places in the city where you could have food outside your home, even as late as the ‘80s. Both owners and staff were usually of Iranian heritage. This was because the then Nizam of Hyderabad welcomed Iranians to his city.”
The Irani cafes represented the melting pot of cultures which Hyderabad stands for. Serving delicacies like paaya and nihari, they attracted people from all walks of life. And the tea — as well as the opportunity it offered to congregate in an inexpensive spot for hours — drew Communists and poets, writers and artists, political thinkers and activists. The repertoire of dishes was uniquely Hyderabadi: bun-maska with an omelette; small, crispy onion samosas; sweet cones; the lukhmi — a samosa variant — that could be prepared with aloo or keema.
Some Irani cafes, like Hilltop and Omega, also had jukeboxes with scores of English and Hindi film songs, and were therefore very popular. By the 1970s, the city had hundreds of cafes, and the various localities they were in came to be known by the establishment’s names — Madina and Shadab in Old City, Farasha opposite Charminar, Blue Sea in Secunderabad, Alpha at Railway Station, Azad and Light of India.
Oral historian and journalist Yunus Lasania notes, “These were places to sit back and relax. They served unique, affordable fare — from keema roti to khichdi khatta. And they still serve great food that is not available elsewhere. The Irani cafes had their golden run from the 1950s to the mid-90s.”
SHIFTING FORTUNES
Till the IT boom hit the city in the late ‘90s, Irani cafes flourished; but with the accompanying spike in rents and a populace that had far lesser time to while away, the sheen was worn off these dinghy establishments. A few managed to sustain themselves with haleem and biryani.
Some cafes did well, but many others were left struggling. Some lived on because of litigation, while others simply waited for a real estate company to write their obituary. Along the winding stretch of Sardar Patel Road in Secunderabad — home to 100 Irani cafes in just 1995 — only seven still remain.
Lasania rues, “COVID was a blow, but these cafes also need to change with the times and improve their amenities and hygiene. The flip side is that the owners are caught between higher establishment costs and patrons who cannot afford to pay more.”
Paradise, one of the oldest and most prominent Irani cafes in Secunderabad, opened many branches, but the most recent one at Hi-Tech City is a swanky, air-conditioned restaurant and takeaway, that does not serve tea. Others like Niloufer Café started bigger and fancier outlets, albeit in newer localities in the city, which now resemble chic bistros.
Asgar attributes this change to the drastic difference in the outlook of people. He says, “No one has the time to spend hours chatting. Moreover, smartphones have replaced human interaction to a minimum. The dictum today is ‘time is money’ — which is the very antithesis of the concept of these cafes.”
LAST ONES STANDING
The Old City still has many Irani cafes, but they are gone from Secunderabad, whereas Hi-Tech City never had them. Asgar, however, doesn’t think all is “lost”. “The restructuring of the city has affected the business, but they [cafes] still thrive. We believe that people in Hyderabad could never stop drinking tea,” he says.
Interestingly, the Irani cafes that are still standing — Bahar, Nimrah, Alpha and Seena — are doing good business. They still attract patrons, and the Instagram generation occasionally drops in for an Osmania biscuit with their chai.
However, the mood inside the cafes has altered significantly. Gone are the patrons perusing a newspaper over several hours, or engaged in long conversations. The leisurely, laidback air of these establishments has been replaced by something more fast-paced, ever-changing. All that remains of that elusive atmosphere, resides in the realm of memory and nostalgia.