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Just the right brew

Dharam Pal Kathpalia, the owner of Depauls, is no more but Depauls, famous for its cold coffee, continues to be the favourite hangout of youngsters, says RAHUL VERMA

THE GOOD OLD ADDRESS DePauls at Connaught Place Photo: V.V. Krishnan

Like the flashback of an old Hindi film, my past went gliding in front of my eyes in slow motion and in black-and-white. A friend had just told me about the death of one of Delhi 's old legends - Dharam Pal Kathpalia. Not too many people know him by this name, but all of Delhi - or at least a large section of it - would have known him as the owner of Depauls. Depauls was our favourite hangout when we were young. Every afternoon, at 1 0' Clock sharp, we used to come from different parts of the city to assemble in front of Depauls on Janpath. We would have a bottle of cold coffee for two rupees, get our shoes polished, ogle for a couple of hours at the young girls who passed by and then went back home. We were back there the next day, with a few rupees in our pocket and a song in our heart.

Depauls was `the' place for young boys and girls those days. You could hang out there for hours and nobody bothered you. Sandwiches (bursting at the seams with coleslaw) and burgers (nice-and-greasy) were sold in one corner. And at the counter sat Dhammy Bhai - known simply as the Fat Man. It was a name that he was proud of.

So much so that when Depauls shifted from its original locale - on the main street of Janpath - to Indian Oil Building, he was so worried that he'd lose his old clientele that for a while he even called it The Fat Man's Shop.

Cold Coffee

The best thing about Depauls - apart from the fact that it let the youth while away its time there - was its cold coffee. Those who have had the coffee there have never quite got used to cold coffee anywhere else. It was cold, thick and creamy, with just the right dose of sugar. It was so addictive that a friend of ours who went away to study in Ahmedabad made it a point to go straight from the railway station to Depaul's for her fix when she came to Delhi for her holidays. The shop is still there - and still pretty popular. The cost of cold coffee, though, has gone up over the years. Now it has a range of cold coffee - with ice cream, without ice-cream and so on - and costs anything between Rs.15 and Rs.30.

What's nice is that the place is still haunted by the young. When I see them strutting around, I am reminded of our lost youth. My friends who used to hang out there with me now follow their daughters around with double-barrel guns and try and eavesdrop into their sons' conversations with their girl friends. So I look at today's young and say - enjoy yourselves while you may, for, tomorrow it's your children's turn.

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