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Numerous restaurants around the world follow certain themes to differentiate themselves from others. While some are created in old train carriages, others have pet dogs or cats roaming around.
But did you know there is a café in Ahmedabad that is known for making customers dine with the dead? Ironically, they do it happily and more so, willingly.The Lucky Tea Stall, located in the Lal Darwaja, Ahmedabad, has been running for over seven decades. Tables are set around a gnarled tree trunk and on either side there are 26 graves cutting through the room.The well-known tea shop is owned and built on a Muslim graveyard, run by a Muslim and yet serves pure vegetarian food and is frequented by people of all communities.
They come here for a steaming cup of tea and the very famous bun maska.The shop was started in 1950 by a certain K Mohammed from Calicut in Kerala. What began as a "very small kiosk" selling pan and tea slowly grew in customer base and the owner decided to expand the shop by buying the gleaming piece of real estate beside the shop, a graveyard.Every morning the workers wipe the graves, cover them with cloth and also offer fresh flowers.
However, steel bars have been erected around them to protect their sanctity and prevent people from going too close to them.Krishan Kutti Nair, who helped Mohammed build and run the restaurant, believed the cemetery was good luck from the beginning.While one might shiver at the idea of eating alongside the dead, the customers of the tea stall also believe that it is actually Lucky. Sagar Bhatt, a devout Hindu and resident of Dariapur, frequented the shop every morning after visiting the temple.
"It feels auspicious to have tea at this place. There is something special about this place," he told PTI in 2022.
ID@undefined Caption not available.Not just locals, the shop was often visited by one of the most legendary painters of the country, M.F. Hussain. It is said to have been his favourite spot in Ahmedabad. He also gifted the restaurant one of his paintings back in 2004, which still proudly hangs on one of its walls.
It depicts an oasis, camels and a kalma: 'La Ilaha Illallah Muhammadur Rasul Allah' (There is only one God and he is Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet).
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is also said to have visited the shop for a cup of tea once. Moreover, it was also one of the locations for shooting the popular television sitcom 'Tarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashma'.“The pleasure of having tea here is amazing. I have been coming here every morning to have tea before going to the Court. The taste of the tea here is amazing. Whenever the painter Hussain used to come to Ahmedabad, he used to have tea here every day. When he went to Dubai, tea was sent to him by plane,” said Iqbal Sheikh, a Gujarat High Court advocate to a news outlet.In its own unique way, Lucky Tea Stall is the best representation of a syncretic India where togetherness, fun and food thrive in a combination that supersedes any difference imaginable.
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