You are invited to a book reading of
The Making of Samovar: How a Mumbai Café Became a Metaphor for a Generation
Written By
Usha R. Khanna
& Edited By
Malavika Sangghvi
On
Saturday, 8th March 2008
At 5:30 p.m.
At
LITERATI bookshop & Café
E / I - 282, Gaura Vaddo, Calangute, Bardez, Goa - 403516
Tel : 0832 - 2277740
Readings by Malavika Sangghvi, Helena Joshi and Margaret Mascarenhas
Looking forward to seeing you
Devieka Bhojwani
(Mobile : 0 98200 34630)
ABOUT THE BOOK
When the history of artsy -bohemian Mumbai is recorded, a chapter will
surely be dedicated to a long narrow sliver of a café named Samovar in
Mumbai, that served for over four decades as the watering hole, salon,
dining hall and meeting place of its intellectuals and artists.
Such is the place that Samovar holds in the hearts and minds of a certain
type of Mumbaiker, that artists have painted on its walls, film makers have
filmed it, poets have praised it, journalists have chronicled it and lovers
have thronged to it to sit on its legendary cane chairs, eating dahi wadas
and enjoying its rain-washed, wind-swept ambience.
Nestled on a humble corridor in the Jehangir Art gallery, Mumbai's premiere
art institution, Samovar -through its proprietress the indefatigable Usha
Khanna- has been privy to some of the art world's best-kept secrets. What
does Husain like cooking himself? Where does Anjolie Ela Menon paint her
crows? Who did Ara love and lose? And why does Raza want to keep coming
back? These are some of the stories that have accumulated gradually on the
restaurant's much-loved tabletops and walls and teacups like patina.
So many of India's most interesting people have lived and dined and dated
and married under Samovar -and Usha Khanna's -benign eye.
Here Behram Contractor Khuswant Singh and Shyam Lal have penned their
columns, RK Laxman has sipped chai with his Common Man, Vindi Banga and
Murli Deora have courted the women who were to become their wives, Shobhaa
De has bunked college lectures, Pearl Padamsee has cast her plays and
Kabir Bedi has been discovered.
At Samovar most of India's new wave filmmakers have dreamt up their path
breaking films, most of India's avant-garde artists planned their best
works, and most of India's best poets have measured out their lives in
coffee spoons.
At Samovar, the ordinary become extraordinary and the extraordinary become
ordinary. Every one rubs shoulders, every one shares tables, and every one
is served and satisfied.
And now-to capture the magic, chronicle the story, sing its song-Usha Khanna
the lady at the center of it all is writing a book -and sharing with the
millions of Samovarians all over the world a wealth of memories, sketches,
photographs, articles, letters, anecdotes, artiste's doodles, menus and
recipes that will evoke the best of Samovar.
It is a one of a kind, treasured tribute, a delightful read and a page
turning glimpse into Mumbai's world of art and intellectuals.
