Originally published Wednesday, December 12, 2007 at 12:00 AM
Better not stiff your waiter in Indian cafe
In India, death is a part of life — and, at one restaurant in western India, a part of lunch. The bustling New Lucky Restaurant in...
The Associated Press
AHMADABAD, India — In India, death is a part of life — and, at one restaurant in western India, a part of lunch.
The bustling New Lucky Restaurant in Ahmadabad is famous for its milky tea, its buttery rolls and the graves between the tables.
It's a spot where old men page through newspapers and argue politics in the morning while young couples share candlelit meals and hold hands at night. That the candles sit atop graves only adds to the ambience.
Krishan Kutti Nair has helped run the restaurant built over a centuries-old Muslim cemetery for close to four decades, but he doesn't know who is buried in the cafe floor. Customers seem to like the graves, which resemble small cement coffins, and that's enough for him.
"The graveyard is good luck," Nair said one recent afternoon after the lunch rush. "Our business is better because of the graveyard."
The graves are painted green, stand about shin-high, and every day the manager decorates each of them with a single dried flower. They're scattered randomly across the restaurant.
The waiters know the floor plan like a bus driver knows his route, and they've mastered the delicate dance of shimmying between graves with a tray of hot tea in each hand.
"We're used to it," said waiter Kayyum Sheikh. "There's nothing odd about it."
The graves probably belong to the family or associates of a 16th-century Sufi saint whose tomb is nearby, according to Varis Alvi, a retired professor in Ahmadabad.
The restaurant dates to the 1950s — before honking traffic and tall buildings surrounded the site — when K.H. Mohammed opened a tea stall outside the cemetery, said Nair, who helped run the place and became Mohammed's partner. Business was good, and the stall kept expanding until its tin walls encircled the graves. Mohammed died in 1996.
In India, where three times the population of the United States is packed into an area one-third the size, it's common for cemeteries to serve multiple purposes, said Alvi. Newcomers to cities set up tents inside graveyards, and businesses set up stalls next to graves.
Some, though, say the restaurant is disrespectful.
"They should maintain the decorum of the graveyard," said a history professor who asked that his name be withheld. When asked why he didn't want to be identified, he smiled and said, "Because I have tea there."
Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company
UPDATE - 01:33 AM
House passes health care bill on close vote
Fort Hood shooting suspect had shown troubling signs

Mourners gather at KeyArena for slain officer's memorial
Mourners gathered at KeyArena for the memorial service of Seattle police Officer Timothy Brenton on November 6, 2009.
nwjobs

Post a comment

Michelle Goodman blogs about work/life balance.
How to tell your office you're gravely ill
Post a comment
nwautos

Choosing a new sedan? Weigh the impact of your choice on your wallet and on the planet.
Post a comment
- Flags were key link to cop slaying, bombings
- Suspect shot as city mourns slain officer
- Briefs | Soccer: New Mexico suspends hair-pulling player Elizabeth Lambert
- McGinn pulling away as late ballots come in
- Using anti-shooter tactics, civilian Army police officer brought down gunman
- Huskies suffer another heartbreaking loss to UCLA
- Consortium on verge of owning Eastside railway land
- Suspect in officer's slaying shot by police
- Heavy snow in Cascades shuts down roads
- Stormy weather to continue today in the Seattle area
- UCLA game thread
937 - Suspect shot as city mourns slain officer
389 - Weapons, bomb-making materials found in suspect's apartment
331 - Troubling portrait emerges of Fort Hood suspect
285 - Decision day for health care in the House
193 - McGinn widens lead over Mallahan in Seattle mayoral race
183 - Schools emerge as new tactic in gay marriage votes
99 - Huskies suffer another heartbreaking loss to UCLA
87 - Using anti-shooter tactics, civilian Army police officer brought down gunman
71 - Referendum 71 show's Washington's strategy for marriage equality is working
70
- Suspect shot as city mourns slain officer
- Flags were key link to cop slaying, bombings
- McGinn pulling away as late ballots come in
- Consortium on verge of owning Eastside railway land
- Guest columnist | Cut the South Carolina jokes, Seattle. Get ready to compete
- Practical Mac | With new features, Apple's MobileMe is worth the price
- H1N1 vaccine for high-risk group coming to King Co. pharmacies
- Shoreline man killed when struck by falling tree part
- Suspect in officer's slaying shot by police
- Movie review | 'An Education' you won't forget








