Cigarettes, Chai and Bread-omelet are all that we get here, but what we get here exclusively is the sovereignty of time …midnight tea or fag…. welcome to Sattar Bhai….
My association with this place goes back for more then a decade now and I know for myself it is no lesser than The Central Perk that Ross, Joey, Rachel and Friends share, and ditto I had my share of emotional, intellectual and cold moment at this place...
I don’t know for sure if his name is Sattar, and his age and the place he comes from, all that I know is, he never seem to be interested in knowing his clients or anybody who came to his café, without an expression on his face he would pour the tea from the kettle and would never bother to know if we had paid for the offering …... I know Sattar Bhai had been a silent listener to all our long conversations, discussion, arguments and personal stories and like an accompanist in a group of performers he was there throughout nodding in himself and self approving to all that we spoke at different mood, at different times of our life.
Some windows are there with an opaque panes, it never opens and I would say it is locked from the other side and the owner of the lock deliberately impedes from peeping outside, even after lot of attempt all that one can see is a hazy picture and would never be able to craft a collage because there is no perspicuity and therefore lacks the connection ….
In this hurried life we have more of such encounters and could be we have a mistaken impression of the owner ….I just feel I could stop and make a sincere attempt to peep in such windows but then I know I am short of time.
While we grew materialistically in our life our Adda remained unchanged….the discolored grey ceramic cups with not so noticeable cracks and the aroma of the steaming over simmered tea was always there to say welcome back…
I know everybody who visits this place must have felt relaxed and opened up to a fresh conversation with a cup of Tea in one hand and a lighted tobacco in another and announcing quietly, I have the approval of Sattar Bhai to live my Sattar Moments.
“Let’s catch up at Sattar Bhai”.
