Coffee Houser Adda

A few days back I called up someone. That someone happened to be a bong! Given that he was a bong his caller tune was a song by Manna Dey. "Coffee houser shei adda ta". That song is very dear to me and after ages I heard it and hated when the person concerned actually picked up the phone!
The sonorous voice of Manna Dey made me nostalgic. The song itself talks about nostalgia. It talks about a gang of friends and their unabashed jamming sessions in the Coffee House in Kolkata. Not that I jammed in Coffee House but where I did was no less than the Coffee House for us. For people who don't know Coffee House is an age old cafeteria in College Street in Kolkata. It is said that all the great art, science, literature and ideologies (Leftist mostly) germinated there.
Simple wooden table and chairs, there are two floors if my memory is giving me a right picture. Huge Victorian era building, mostly filled with smoke of various ciggerate and bidi brands. Mostly college students, some government officials, teachers, musicians and gangs of vella boys who have nothing important to do come and spend hours.
Now that song deported me to those golden years of mine in Kolkata where what I am today was germinated, nurtured and at the same time spent a lot of time just killing it. My "Adda" was Agarpara Station's platform number 2 near Mama's tea stall. And trust me it was our famous address. We were a gang of around 20 odd boys, mostly out of their college and became diploma holder engineers. Some lucky like me had nothing to do but to spend money sent by my ATM i.e. my dad.
The usual adda session would start by 6 pm in the evening as you know if you work beyond 6 in Kolkata, you are committing a crime. Crime grave enough to make you a laughable and despicable caricature! So it would start at 6 sharp and would go on till late solely depending upon the topics of the day. Now topics of the would include first the juiciest love affairs, hottest girl in the para (that area), any upcoming superhit or super movie, cricket, politics etc. Point to be noted is discussion on career was a strict NO NO! Guess nobody liked to see and mirror. Those were hush-hush discussions mostly in the smaller groups between people who got beaten by boss or client or simply frustrated because the job doesn't pay well.
Having said that, what I found the most endearing and enlightening in those adda sessions that they made you quick thinker, you learn to digest humor made on you, art of replying back immediately, negotiation, persuasion and a lot of other people skills. I wish my addas were far more productive. I wish I had a different set of people, more productive people to hang out with. But whatever time was spent in those adda sessions, in retrospect i believe enriched me and made me a better human. It turned an introvert like me into an extrovert who can strike conversation. It taught me to hold conversations even if you know zilch about the subject.  Above all it taught me to communicate. There is nothing more liberating than to be able to communicate freely.
Thank you Kolkata. Thank you my "Adda session".
I really miss those days and sessions. Coffee Housher sei adda ta aaj aar nei!