The Palaces of Memory

Book excerpt: The Palaces of Memories is a journey into India through the Indian Coffee Houses, a national network of worker-owned cafs which can be found in cities throughout the sub-continent. The Coffee Houses simultaneously speak of a Post-Independence optimism and a now-faded grandeur. Stuart Freedman has visited more than thirty of the most significant and beautiful Coffee Houses throughout India. Away from the stereotypes of poverty and exotica they have allowed him to enter an 'ordinary' India, an environment which echoes the greasy-spoon cafes of a long-forgotten London.