By Kulbhushan Kain
Dehradun has become a tourists’ madhouse. The streets are crowded with them. Some of these visitors are friends and, when on a visit, ask me the one question a tourist always asks, “Which is the best restaurant to have a meal?”
Frankly speaking – I have no answer to that one. Unlike the Dehradun I grew up in, it has hundreds of cafes and restaurants, each claiming to be the best.
In the sixties and seventies, it was not like that. There were only a handful and each of them was as good as the other. Being few in numbers, it was easy to eat at all the “best restaurants” of Dehradun. It was a small, manageable and beautiful town. A good or bad reputation spread fast. Accountability was at a premium. Compromising with quality was unacceptable.
Even late into the 1970s, Dehradun’s Rajpur Road, which stretched for just over 9 kilometres from the city’s famous Ghanta Ghar (Clock Tower) up to the little hamlet of Rajpur, was barely traversed beyond the first couple of kilometres beyond Dilaram Bazaar. As you passed beyond this, the hustle and bustle of the city centre melted away into the sights and sounds of litchi and mango trees. A short walk ahead of Dilaram Bazaar, stood the Amritdhara Building. It fell on the shoulders of the enterprising Mr SP Kochar to extend the “last frontier” of Dehradun by setting up the now “legendary” Madhuban Hotel which, till date, and will forever, remain my favourite hotel. But in those days everyone thought that Mr Kochar was insane to have built a hotel so far away and in the “woods”, so to say. How wrong they were! Madhuban Hotel became one of the shining outposts of Dehradun and was graced by the high and mighty – among them Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Zail Singh, Rajendra Kumar, Hema Malini, Raj Kapoor, Jagjit Singh, Rajesh Khanna and a host of others. In fact, I stood in a queue and survived a mild lathi charge when I tried to catch a glimpse of the icon, Rajesh Khanna, when he stayed there.
Now, most of Dehradun’s shopping malls, restaurants, cafes, and 5 Star Hotels are mostly located beyond Madhuban Hotel. There is not an inch of open space as big brands and “wannabe” small ones jostle for a “bite of the cake” on Rajpur Road. When I look out from my car’s window as I drive on it – I see hundreds of eating places. And all of them crowded with customers. Some of these cafes have become the “modern” brands of Dehradun. Kalsang is always in demand for the “best” momos, Ama Café is the hangout for the young and tech savvy (you will always find people working on laptops), Auric with beautiful views and reasonably good butter chicken, further up Hyatt Regency (good buffet) and the Taj. There is a café tucked away next to a forest and a stream and which I frequent for coffee and momos – Foresta. If nothing, I like it for the quiet that surrounds it. I sometimes sit for hours composing and writing articles and chapters for my book. There is another café which reminds me of a Swiss Chalet – Loulou. Beautiful setting ,very European, though the menu is restricted – for example they don’t sell sizzlers which happen to be my favourite dish!
There are many more – but some things distinguish them from the places I frequented as a young boy and man – they are noisy, they are crowded. The dress code in most of them is rather bohemian –shorts, sliced jeans, floaters! In our times, the dress code was more sedate and formal. Children were seen but not heard.
Which brings me back to the ‘60s and ‘70s. My father was a foodie (he used to cook and that is a “must” qualification to be termed a foodie). We used to eat out normally once a week. There were just a few restaurants which we used to frequent – we did not have the luxury of choice of the many restaurants that residents have now. They were all within walking distance of one another, and in and around Astley Hall. Our favourite was Moti Mahal. It served excellent food and became a legendary eating place run on very homely terms by my friend Vimaldeep’s dad. They served excellent tomato fish with fresh peas and dal makhni. Sometimes, we would eat at a restaurant just before Moti Mahal – I think it was called “Sindh Karachi” restaurant. It was more modestly priced but served fresh and wholesome food. It had an open kitchen and was at the corner of the road that led to the old bus stand. Like me – my father had a penchant for “dhabha” food and we would have dal and hot chappatis at Barkat Hotel – at the end of Paltan Bazaar – a “gali” led to it. For chicken curry and paneer dishes there was nothing to beat Kwality Restuarant. It was a big brand – and rightfully so. It was not a brand created by television or newspaper advertisements. It was a brand created through word of mouth. It was run very efficiently by the redoubtable Moni Ghai and his family. There were two cafe and bars which my father loved to patronise because he could have a beer with his food – Indiana Bar and Cafe run by the redoubtable N Chaman, and the Royal Cafe run by the legendary Pashricha family.
You might be thinking – did we never eat Chinese food? Of course we did. I am going to tell you about 3 places where we ate Chinese/Tibetan food. One was in our backyard in Clement Town in the Tibetan Colony near Post Office. It was simply called “Tibetan Food”. They served excellent noodles and thupka. Their “chaang’ was not too bad either! There was another small restaurant near Ghanta Ghar, the Amdo-Tibetan Restaurant. To reach it on the second floor, one had to navigate a narrow staircase to reach a room that was no bigger than 15 by 12 ft. But, by God – did they not churn out the most fabulous Tibetan food? These two were “budget” friendly eating joints. If one wanted to be seen wearing good clothes and leave a whiff of aftershave or scent – then we would eat at Napoli.
There was a strong link between eating in the restuarants and the movies we saw. It was no coincidence that when we saw a movie in New Empire we would eat at Moti Mahal, if we saw a movie at Odeon, we would eat at Kwality, if we saw a movie at Orient we would eat at Royal Café, if we saw a movie at Laxmi, we would eat at Barkat, if we saw a movie at Digvijay – we would eat at Amdo…!
Unfortunately, all the restuarants and movie halls have bitten the dust. All except Orient and Madhuban Hotel. That is why Madhuban Hotel happens to be my favourite. Like me – it has survived the vicissitudes of time. The last time I went there and waited for my sizzler, the crooner asked me, “Sir, is there any song that you want me to sing?”
I looked at him wistfully, thought for a moment and replied, “Can you sing ‘Country Roads take me home’?”
He sang for me – soft, soothing in perfect notes.
As he sang, I searched for the roads.
But I knew that no roads could, now, take me home!
(Kulbhushan Kain is an award winning educationist with more than 4 decades of working in schools in India and abroad. He is a prolific writer who loves cricket, travelling and cooking. He can be reached at kulbhushan.kain@gmail.com)
