Bhushitendu is a filmmaker and photographer based in India who shot and shared his lens into chai cafe culture at Sassanian in Bombay. He talks us through some of the images with owner Mrs. Ruhangeez Kola overlooking proceedings.
After visiting a few of these cafes in Bombay, I focused on one that I found particularly interesting. It was called Sassanian Restaurant. The owner, Mrs. Ruhangeez Kola was this very eccentric, very interesting woman who was kind enough to let me photograph. She asked a lot of her patrons to let me shoot them and made sure that we show equal numbers of women patrons as men because earlier, I only got some pictures of men and she was like,’No, no!”
The name Sassanian comes from one of the last Iranian dynasties. Most of these cafes are owned by members of the Parsi community or the Zoroastrian community, who are descended from Iran after they were persecuted by Muslim rulers. So when they came to India years ago, there was an amalgamation of Iranian and Indian cultures. A lot of them knew how to make chai in a particular style, which is called Irani style chai, which is not how regular chai is made. They have to boil the milk for hours and hours, and then they make the concoction separately. And then while serving, they mix the two.
“Most of these cafes are owned by members of the Parsi community. A lot of them make Irani style chai. You boil the milk for hours, then make the concoction separately. And then while serving, they mix the two.”
This is the husband of the woman who currently runs the place. His job is mainly to just sit there and do the books. The biscuits are something called mawa cake. It’s a dairy based dried cake, which is very popular. And I mean, there are some of the best mawa cakes you’ll find in Bombay. There’s something called Shrewsbury biscuits too, which are very popular across all Irani cafes. I personally love them.
“They have mirrors on the wall so that the cashier can keep an eye on everyone using them. One of them actually described the mirrors as CCTV cameras.”
Over the years, all these places have been deteriorating. A lot of these old restaurants and cafes have shut down. They have mirrors on the wall so that the cashier can keep an eye on everyone using them. One of them actually described the mirrors as CCTV cameras. In all these old run restaurants, there are lots and lots of big mirrors on the walls, and they all serve snacks and chai and coffee and Parsi style meals. A lot of bakery items, a lot of biscuits and cookies. So some of the surviving Irani style restaurants are in Hyderabad, Bombay, and Pune.
Street cats are quite common in Bombay, and these guys just let this cat in. No one minded her. She was just roaming around. I saw her on both days, so I thought of taking some pictures of her and I quite like this one. One of the staff members were like ‘Oh, yeah, yeah, she’s the real owner of the place.’
I got to visit a city that I’ve lived in for five years and was always fascinated by. I used to visit this part of the town regularly, and I was always intrigued by these old cafes. The cups are very typical, you see a lot of them in these old places, and so are the wooden interiors.
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