PUNE METAMORPHOSIS

FROM AMRUTTULYA CHAHA & IRANI CHAI TEA-TOWN TO BARISTA & CCD COFFEE-CITY

by

VIKRAM KARVE

When I was a small boy [and even till recently] Pune [or Poona as it was known then] was a TEA TOWN . Everyone drank tea, except some quirky upaas type aunts who always insisted on sweet milky jaiphal spiced coffee and were fasting most of the time on yummy delicacies like Sabudana Khichadi and Wade, Rajgire, waryache tandul, healthy fruits, nourishing milk, calorie-rich pure ghee sweets and similar lip-smacking upasasache padartha.

Outside your home, there were chiefly two types of tea for the Tea-Loving Punekar to relish AMRUTTULYA CHAHA at the ubiquitous Amruttulya Tea Shops located at every nook and corner of Pune, and the peerless IRANI CHAI served by the numerous Irani Restaurants all over Pune City and Camp. And if you wanted to drink a good cup of coffee you had to go all the way to Poona Coffee House in Deccan or the Coffee House on Moledina Road in Camp. Indeed Amruttulya Chahaand Irani Chai are an important aspect of the culinary heritage of Pune.

Amrut means Nectar, and Tulya means comparable, so Amruttulyameans Comparable to Nectar and indeed, true to its name, Amruttulya Tea is comparable to nectar, sweet, ambrosial, like the elixir of life! Amruttulya Chaha is not brewed, it is cooked in front of you on a Kerosine Primus Stove, pumped well, in a brass, stainless-steel, or now-a-days aluminium vessel. I love the special chaha. Milk and water are boiled together, with plenty of sugar, masala [comprising crushed cardamom, ginger], and tea leaves, stirring continuously to make sure it doesnt overflow. You can drink it from the cup, or better still the saucer pulling it in with your lips and let it deliciously emulsify on your tongue for that heavenly elevating feeling. Tell me, isnt Amruttulya Chaha lip-smacking tasty and soul-refreshing?

The Amruttulya, now vanished, nearest to where I lived on Tilak Road in Sadashiv Peth in the 1960s, was the one near Ashok Bakery [also disappeared] and Dyanavidnyan Library [still going strong] and further down the road past SP College towards Maharashtra Mandal there were the legendary Amruttulyas Ambika and New Ambika [a friend of mine used to say that the morning tea was superb in Ambika and the evening tea in New Ambika, so he used to scrupulously have it that way]. So if you are a Tea-Lover, and happen to be in Pune, you better hurry and relish a cup of special tea at an Amruttulya, before all of them disappear. Just like the Irani Restaurants of Pune which are disappearing, one by one, slowly but surely.

Irani Chai is the most rejuvenating beverage I have ever had. They keep the steaming rich tea brew and hot milk in separate containers and mix it in just the right proportion to get the terrific inimitable gulabi Irani Chai. Drench in a fresh soft bun-maska, place it on your tongue, and close your eyes arent you in seventh heaven? Even a cup of piping hot Irani Tea by itself is sheer bliss.

One of my favourite Irani Restaurants of yesteryear, Naaz, of mutton samosa fame, opposite West End , has metamorphosed into a Barista Coffee Shop. Lucky and Sunrise at Deccan have disappeared, and only Good Luck remains. Its really sad. The culture of Pune is fast changing. The fashionable youngsters dont drink tea anymore its infra dig, isnt it? So they prefer Coffee, not the deliciously fortifying Coorgi peaberry-plantation filter coffee served by the Udipi Restaurants, but the expensive stylish branded international coffees with attractive foreign names served at posh Baristas, CCDs, and high-falutin branded coffee shops proliferating rapidly all over Pune. [Oh yes, only branded stuff is in vogue now-a-days!]. In the new posh suburbs like Aundh, Kondhwa and Kalyaninagar, you may not find even a single Amruttulya Tea Shop or Irani Caf. Just imagine, the other day I couldnt get a cup of tea in a multiplex, but there were plenty of varieties of exotic coffee, both hot and cold.

And buckling under the onslaught of increasing international cultural invasion, as the glorious city of Pune with its once distinctive heritage and unique identity rapidly metamorphoses into a soulless run-of-the-mill indifferent characterless metropolis, and loses its unique culinary identity, stylish and classy Coffee-drinking thrives and prospers, and the Amruttulayas and Irani Restaurants slowly fade away. So dear fellow Punekar Tea-Lover Foodie, better hurry up and rush to your nearest Amruttulya or Irani Restaurant before they vanish from the face of Pune altogether. And tell me dear Reader; can these fancy coffees ever match the zesty refreshment and delectable satisfaction you derive from a stimulating cup of earthy Amruttulya or Irani tea?

VIKRAM KARVE

Copyright Vikram Karve 2007

Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work

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