Lost and forgotten

We, me and my friends, whether we attended school in the '80s, or '90s, still hold the memories of the handful of restaurants that existed in Guwahati near and dear to our hearts.

Why? To paraphrase a folk dictum, it's because the way to a person's heart is through his or her stomach. But there is more to this then mere gastronomic pleasure.

We tend to remember meals and their surrounding social experiences. Sensory inputs combine with the presence of good friends and pleasant circumstances to create vivid memories, especially those shared over food. College is a lot of work, but you don't remember all that work - you remember the fun. The studies and details of the case study we worked on, those are going to fade. What remains are the memories, good or bad, of the times spent with people we cherish.

The venues hosting all that fun, restaurants most of which are gone now but others are still making their presence felt, share a rich and varied history. As the city has grown and changed over the decades, so have the eating joints and restaurants.

During our times, an average day in an average Assamese household began with tea and ‘biscoot’, which was religiously followed by ‘ruti-bhaji’ and then lunch (non-vegetarian dishes were reserved for Sundays when guests invariably adorned the dining table). Afternoon tea arrived after the mothers have had their mandatory post lunch siesta and all the dry clothes were brought in from the cloth-line. If you were lucky, ‘bhujiya’ or ‘muri laroo’ came with tea (Tea was reserved for adults; kids were unfailingly given cow’s milk flavoured with Maltova or Horlicks). After a couple of hours of pretending to concentrate on school books (killing mosquitoes and doodling at the of the borders and the last pages of copies) came the mandatory dinner at a fixed time in the night.

Till high school, eating out was a very uncommon occurrence. Restaurants were piquant structures which meant spending money for no reason. Also, the concept of pocket money was yet to find a firm footing in many households. By the time we cleared our matriculation exams, we were ready to eat out..and how!

It all began with my brother and his friends going out for ‘momos’. These steamed delicacies were synonymous with the U-TURN RESTAURANT at the turning of the Chandmari flyover. I started going to the restaurant after I ‘upgraded’ my status from a ‘pork-hater’ to a ‘voracious pork-eater’. The place has closed down, but the abandoned bamboo and hay structure at the sharp bend of the flyover reminds me of the most heavenly momos that were ever created on earth.

When my cousin got engaged to a boy of her parent’s choice, I was sent as her chaperone on their first date. The groom-to-be took us to MING-ROOM, again in Chandmari. The ambience was sophisticated, the lay out eye-catching. I was awe-struck to the point of being unable to comprehend most part of the menu. Chowmein came with gravy (unlike the dry noodles at home that Ma made and seasoned with pepper powder and bits of papad). Thus began a long association with MING ROOM, which continued till the restaurant existed.

Walls are meant to separate, but THE WALL in Guwahati Club near St. Mary’s School was a place where we united over Indianized pizza and cold coffee.

PIZZERIA in Ulubari is the outlet that made the pizza fashionable. Long before Dominos and Pizza Hut became  household names in my city, it was PIZZERIA which brought Italy to our palates - it might not have been a nationwide chain of pizza serving outlets, but it undoubtedly served a great variety of pizzas.

Dosa had to be eaten at the WOODLANDS in Ulubari. I am sure that the flyover at Ulubari must have been a boon to the traffic police, but it almost killed the spirit of WOODLANDS. A few days back, I went to Chennai Kitchen, the swanky south-Indian eatery joint, but I could not get the ‘feel’ of WOODLANDS.

But a few places have retained their legacy. Chinese meal at CHINA-TOWN, ‘Singra’ (samosa) with tea at LAKHI CABIN at the junction of Fancy Bazar-Panbazar, chicken roll at FEEDS (opposite AC Market), the Assamese thali at PARADISE, cake at SHEIKH BROTHERS, burger and cakes at EGGS-O-TIC, coffee at KHUSHBOO, pork delicacies at CARPEDIEM and the snacks of BEATRIX at Uzan Bazar are examples. These places serve more than a meal. The names of these places may have changed over the years and the city may have grown drastically around them, but the one thing that hasn’t changed is their ability to please people.

If some of the addresses don't jibe with your memories, be aware that many of these restaurants changed location even during their heydays. Many of these places still serve me a cup of nostalgia, laced with the sweetness of those friendly chatters. In the nook and corner of my beloved city, I can smell a part of my life, which brings back memories of bygone days (and it calls to mind a really specific memory, as if I am in that previous part of my life again). I walk into a restaurant where I went to when I was in college and the place is the same and the smells are the same … The sensory inputs all serve as cues for retrieving the event. It is time travel, and it feel like I am experiencing it, all over again.

.We, me and my friends, whether we attended school in the '80s, or '90s, still hold the memories of the handful of restaurants that existed in Guwahati near and dear to our hearts.

Why? To paraphrase a folk dictum, it's because the way to a person's heart is through his or her stomach. But there is more to this then mere gastronomic pleasure.

We tend to remember meals and their surrounding social experiences. Sensory inputs combine with the presence of good friends and pleasant circumstances to create vivid memories, especially those shared over food. College is a lot of work, but you don't remember all that work - you remember the fun. The studies and details of the case study we worked on, those are going to fade. What remains are the memories, good or bad, of the times spent with people we cherish.

The venues hosting all that fun, restaurants most of which are gone now but others are still making their presence felt, share a rich and varied history. As the city has grown and changed over the decades, so have the eating joints and restaurants.

During our times, an average day in an average Assamese household began with tea and ‘biscoot’, which was religiously followed by ‘ruti-bhaji’ and then lunch (non-vegetarian dishes were reserved for Sundays when guests invariably adorned the dining table). Afternoon tea arrived after the mothers have had their mandatory post lunch siesta and all the dry clothes were brought in from the cloth-line. If you were lucky, ‘bhujiya’ or ‘muri laroo’ came with tea (Tea was reserved for adults; kids were unfailingly given cow’s milk flavoured with Maltova or Horlicks). After a couple of hours of pretending to concentrate on school books (killing mosquitoes and doodling at the of the borders and the last pages of copies) came the mandatory dinner at a fixed time in the night.

Till high school, eating out was a very uncommon occurrence. Restaurants were piquant structures which meant spending money for no reason. Also, the concept of pocket money was yet to find a firm footing in many households. By the time we cleared our matriculation exams, we were ready to eat out..and how!

It all began with my brother and his friends going out for ‘momos’. These steamed delicacies were synonymous with the U-TURN RESTAURANT at the turning of the Chandmari flyover. I started going to the restaurant after I ‘upgraded’ my status from a ‘pork-hater’ to a ‘voracious pork-eater’. The place has closed down, but the abandoned bamboo and hay structure at the sharp bend of the flyover reminds me of the most heavenly momos that were ever created on earth.

When my cousin got engaged to a boy of her parent’s choice, I was sent as her chaperone on their first date. The groom-to-be took us to MING-ROOM, again in Chandmari. The ambience was sophisticated, the lay out eye-catching. I was awe-struck to the point of being unable to comprehend most part of the menu. Chowmein came with gravy (unlike the dry noodles at home that Ma made and seasoned with pepper powder and bits of papad). Thus began a long association with MING ROOM, which continued till the restaurant existed.

Walls are meant to separate, but THE WALL in Guwahati Club near St. Mary’s School was a place where we united over Indianized pizza and cold coffee.

PIZZERIA in Ulubari is the outlet that made the pizza fashionable. Long before Dominos and Pizza Hut became  household names in my city, it was PIZZERIA which brought Italy to our palates - it might not have been a nationwide chain of pizza serving outlets, but it undoubtedly served a great variety of pizzas.

Dosa had to be eaten at the WOODLANDS in Ulubari. I am sure that the flyover at Ulubari must have been a boon to the traffic police, but it almost killed the spirit of WOODLANDS. A few days back, I went to Chennai Kitchen, the swanky south-Indian eatery joint, but I could not get the ‘feel’ of WOODLANDS.

But a few places have retained their legacy. Chinese meal at CHINA-TOWN, ‘Singra’ (samosa) with tea at LAKHI CABIN at the junction of Fancy Bazar-Panbazar, chicken roll at FEEDS (opposite AC Market), the Assamese thali at PARADISE, cake at SHEIKH BROTHERS, burger and cakes at EGGS-O-TIC, coffee at KHUSHBOO, pork delicacies at CARPEDIEM and the snacks of BEATRIX at Uzan Bazar are examples. These places serve more than a meal. The names of these places may have changed over the years and the city may have grown drastically around them, but the one thing that hasn’t changed is their ability to please people.

If some of the addresses don't jibe with your memories, be aware that many of these restaurants changed location even during their heydays. Many of these places still serve me a cup of nostalgia, laced with the sweetness of those friendly chatters. In the nook and corner of my beloved city, I can smell a part of my life, which brings back memories of bygone days (and it calls to mind a really specific memory, as if I am in that previous part of my life again). I walk into a restaurant where I went to when I was in college and the place is the same and the smells are the same … The sensory inputs all serve as cues for retrieving the event. It is time travel, and it feel like I am experiencing it, all over again.