A gravely unique story out of AhmEdabad (I can’t hear you groaning, so ha!):
In India, death is a part of life — and, at one restaurant in western India, a part of lunch. The bustling New Lucky Restaurant inAhmadabadAhmedabad is famous for its milky tea, its buttery rolls, and the graves between the tables.
It’s a spot where old men page through newspapers and argue politics in the morning while young couples share candlelit meals and hold hands at night. That the candles sit atop graves only adds to the ambiance.
Krishan Kutti Nair has helped run the restaurant built over a centuries-old Muslim cemetery for close to four decades, but he doesn’t know who is buried in the cafe floor. Customers seem to like the graves, which resemble small cement coffins, and that’s enough for him.
Sure, the customers like it…unlike me, they are apparently not haunted by MJ’s Thriller video! Anyway, trust a desi to bring it all back to auspiciousness:
“The graveyard is good luck,” Nair said one recent afternoon after the lunch rush. “Our business is better because of the graveyard.”
The graves are painted green, stand about shin high, and every day the manager decorates each of them with a single dried flower. They’re scattered randomly across the restaurant — one up front next to the cash register, three in the middle next to a table for two, four along the wall near the kitchen.
I think business is good because the waiters seem fantastic:
The waiters know the floor plan like a bus driver knows his route, and they’ve mastered the delicate dance of shimmying between graves with a tray of hot tea in each hand.
“We’re used to it,” said waiter Kayyum Sheikh. “There’s nothing odd about it.”
Who are in the old graves at New Lucky restaurant, anyway?
The graves probably belong to the family or associates of a 16th-century Sufi saint whose tomb is nearby, according to Varis Alvi, a retired professor in Ahmadabad.
A few decades ago, what would become a cafe was outside the cemetery, not in it:
The restaurant dates to the 1950s — before honking traffic and tall buildings surrounded the site — when K.H. Mohammed opened a tea stall outside the cemetery, said Nair, who helped run the place and became Mohammed’s partner. Business was good, and the stall kept expanding until its tin walls encircled the graves. Mohammed died in 1996.
Pragmatism, Indian ish-tyle:
In India, where three times the population of the United States is packed into an area one-third the size, it’s common for cemeteries to serve multiple purposes, said Alvi. Newcomers to cities set up tents inside graveyards, and businesses set up stalls next to graves.
In other cultures, people throw parties in cemeteries. It’s all in how you look at it:
Besides, the Hindu notion of death as merely an opportunity for rebirth makes the prospect less frightening than it is in the West, Alvi said. Although the tea shop cemetery is Muslim — Hindus cremate their dead — most Indians would feel comfortable relaxing in a cemetery, he said.
“Graveyards in India are never scary places,” Alvi said. “We don’t have a nice literature of horror stories so we don’t have much fear of ghosts.”
Now THAT makes me jealous of my desi cousins. I’ve got no love for horror.
Most customers said they don’t mind sitting next to graves.
“We spend all day here,” Mohammed Tafir said between cups of tea. “The graves are holy, they’re good luck. They bring us good luck too.”
Some, though, say the restaurant is disrespectful.
“They should maintain the decorum of the graveyard,” said a history professor who asked that his name be withheld. When asked why he didn’t want to be identified, he smiled and said, “Because I have tea there.”
Nice. The professor wants to have his ghoulishly good chai and drink it, too. What I want to know is, has Yo Dad been to the New Lucky? 🙂
Waiter, are you sure this is chicken?
Behind my school in Delhi there used to be a tea cum snack stall on the land of a cemetery which was incidentally right across the road from the Delhi Golf Club. Me and my friends spent many mornings and afternoons there with the caddies sipping tea.
Looks like the whole restaurant is a ‘rest’-room…
Why is this listed under humor? This is grave business.
Kavita beti, don’t spill your chai on your grandma. You know she used to like only filter coffee.
Funny. Somewhat related. Read this a day ago! About a Chinese woman who opened a death-themed restaurant. Apparently the grave business is an international one!
Waiter,waiter, there’s a skeleton in my soup! Can’t you serve a regular fly like everyone?
“Graveyards in India are never scary places,†Alvi said. “We don’t have a nice literature of horror stories so we don’t have much fear of ghosts.â€
What?? May be he hasnt seen a video of Chiranjeevi or read Vikram-Vetal stories.
Anna: “What I want to know is, has Yo Dad been to the New Lucky? :)”. No I have not been to this place – yet. But I promise you as in just about ten days I will be in good ol’ Amdavad, if I have time, I will stop by and have a “Cuppa”. If they allow me, heck I might even bring a picture back for SM folks who are interested. Hopefully one of the long time occupant who is in there (grave i.e.) would not insist in appearing in the Fotu!
Don’t order the Rava dosa or you’ll land up waiting like these folks ..
I have seen a grave in the middle of a shopping center (in Bangalore)! Nobody seemed to care other telling stories about who is/was in there.
People, you heard it here first.
w00t
If this place served alcohol, you could always order a bier.
I don’t know about you, brown, but tea cum doesn’t sound appetizing to me.
Mein gott, ping pong…between this and “Headlines”, you’re on a roll.
Why is everyone on SM at their funniest when my office is swarming with people and I can’t laugh? Meh. Just my luck
Ever hear of non-dairy creamer?
We’re interested! We’re interested! 😀 This is fantastic timing, I had no idea you’d be there in two weeks. Here’s hoping you have a few moments to see it (sans long-time occupants) for yourself (and by extention, us)!
Yeah “Lucky” as its called, is near the Gujarat archaeological building. The big U shaped building you see near Relief (?) road. I have been there many times, mostly with my dad and his friends who worked at the archaeological building. My dad used to work there. This place is a great lunch spot for tea. And although I never had tea there, its supposed to be awesome. Best you could find in the city. You could be sitting right next to a tomb. I could only get myself to drink coke there. Thats about it. I was around 12(?). Wow, it took a long time for this to hit the intertubes.
Its not as freaky as it seems actually. You find people smiling around there. The cream rolls there are popular too. I think I last went there before 10 years.
Trying to butter me up are you? I’d like a milky tea with my buttery roll, please.
Anyway, since this is the New Lucky Restaurant, what happened to the old one? Did it stop being lucky? Or is that the sort of question that releases the trolls?
afaik, there was no old lucky restaurant. its just the name. And its just called “lucky”. I knew it was old, really old. The article says its over 4 decades old.
Do you think when it’s not busy the staff says “Man it’s really dead in here tonight”?
wait wait wait…
Their advertising campaign should be “Chai just like grandma used to make. We should know, she’s propped up in the back!” Better yet: “We serve chai to die for!”, or “Our chai is heavenly!”
Hey, how about “He kicked the bucket, we filled it with chai, everybody’s a winner!”
I so belong in advertising.
new Michael Jack Thriller! Now with garam chai!
Pingpong,
I walked into that one, I guess it is impossible to take out the desi english out of a DBD 🙂
Looks like they have “renovated” haha, not the graves i mean. There used to be no walls. it used to be an open place, near the corner of relief road and another street whose name escapes me at the moment. there were trees in between, and actually most of the place was shaded with trees and tin roof. Looks like we need better pictures. and the place is teeming with people during the work day. The floor used to be cement and not tiled.
Edit: heres a link on flickr http://flickr.com/photos/kerim/3503540/
photo gallery: http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14574123&page=1
the walls never used to be there. now it looks hideous!
Don’t they call it Amdavad now?
Ahmedabad.. Please, some respect.. Not hating, just hurts when somebody doesn’t get it right..
In this specific circumstance, given the gothic nature of the article, I think you meant “release the bats“.
@27 Rev.Bayes THANKS A TON for bringing that one up. Cheers!
I’m so sorry. That’s how they spelled it in the article. 🙁 I was confused by it, but also was trying not to have another Telegu/Telugu incident. Sigh. No more trusting the SF Chronicle.
Finally! A place to get your morning chai with aaj ki taaza kabr.
“The reason that I killed her was ..”
<
p> “Not here,idiot, remember the floors have ears”
I LOVE THIS RESTAURANT!!! Lucky’s STILL has the best dosa and desserts in Amdavad. And the coffins are actually not as scary as they seem. the whole place has a really tranquil spiritual vibe about it. There’s one spot where theres a HUGE tree that goes right through the middle of the restaurant all the way through a hole in the roof.
I remember the waiters telling us that the coffins were actually full of great islamic/sufi saints.
Personally I loved the place, but then again, all of Old Amdavad is amazing regardless.
Don’t these people know that building on top of ancient Indian burial grounds is never a good idea? A N N A, check out this article for an interesting analysis of the horror genre. (Yay, Beetlejuice!)
I realize that it was an accident.. I was annoyed by the SF Chronicle spelling it as Ahmadabad.. It’s simple really.. Ahmed+abad.. the city of Ahmed..
“Hey, Ahmad yaar. Will you do me a favor?”
“Lemme guess. You want me to pull the graveyard shift for you again.”
“Will you? I can’t break my date with this chick, yaar. She is a zannat ki noor.”
“No way. The place is like a ghost town at night. No customers, no tips, bibi bahut naraaz. And your regular customers stiff me because they want to be served by you.”
“Okay, do this for me just this once and I won’t tell the boss you left the basement door open last night.”
“To h*ll with you. All right, just one more time.”
Customer: “If you don’t mind interrupting your gup shup, may I have a cup of decoffinated coffee?
It’s so interesting how death is not something to be feared in Indian culture. Of course there is the cleanliness aspect, showering after a cremation etc.
I learned from cousin, that if you see a dead body being carried to a funeral procession that it’s good luck. She always hoped to see one on the way to her exams! That really cracked me up!
I don’t think I would say I’m scared of death, but does it make no one else uneasy to eat on others’ graves? Clearly I have an illogical association with cadavers 🙂
The house band goes by the name The New Lucky Stiffs.
Finally I have a place to be totally emo and enjoy a good meal. Mcdonald’s aint got nothin’ on this.
Ah, reminds me of ye olde days when my friends and I used to play cricket in a forgotten graveyard from British times. I still remember the headstone of a certain James Hawkins was just the right height to serve as stumps.
Good times.
Well, I have never had a roll in another person’s grave, but I don’t believe it would make me toast.
There’s got to be something about this spirited Mallu that makes people gravitate towards his restaurant! I’d think twice before ordering gravy at his restaurant, though.
40 · Emokid said:
Just don’t enjoy it too much or you may lose your goth credentials. “If I were happy would you punish me?“
They don’t tell you that the dosas are very good, and there is a tree growing in between the graves and through the roof. My favourite place in Amdavad.
E tu Shashwati with the new spellings?
I second Rev.Bayes @35, I realize it was a mistake ANNA 🙂
On a different note, reading all the comments above made me realize there are soo many Amdavadis here on SM! (Yes,the city is Ahmedabad,and we are Amdavadis, peace!)
Kunjan: I believe it’s at the end of the Relief Road at the west end near Lal Darwaja across “Agashy” restaurant. I was at the world famous Sidi Syed’s Mosque on Christmas 2005 ( I still have not figured out how to post it here). This place Lucky should be right around the corner. Yes there are many Amdavadi’s on SM site. You got a problem with that? Humm? Like late poet Avinash Vyas has said in a song: Sachho Amdavadi – koiee thi na jaay ganjyo. There must be something in the water of River Sabarmati – which late “Mahatma” even recognized, and established his famous Gandhi Ashram on it’s banks.
You got a problem with that? Humm?
Nah, I am a Sachhi Amdavadi too, will be there before you do 😉
Really? What about all the ones that hang around with Shiva? Or the vampires all fallin out of trees and shit?
My parents and cousins definitely have some Spooky Tales of Small-town India they toss out from time to time. You’re supposed to avoid getting too close to wells or standing under certain trees, if I recall correctly.
And I mean… even if you wanna say India doesn’t have a nice “literature” of horror stories, what about that giant Bollywood Horror Boom? It’s a little old now, but surely it lives on in the hearts and minds of morbid folk everywhere. I just cannot believe that there isn’t some Goth infrastructure out there, people.