India and the coffee cafe culture

There has long been acknowledged to be a connection between coffee and intellectual activity.

Did you know that the earliest coffee houses in London were dubbed ‘penny universities’ because of the intellectual debate that raged within the walls of them?

This seems to be something of a global trend.

An interesting article appeared in The Peninsula Qatar recently, to show that the marriage of drinking coffee and reading has really hit it off.

One of the early coffee shops to be incorporated with a book shop was in 1999 in New Delhi, when the Cafe Turtle and Full Circle book store joined forces.

It was a success   people liked the marriage of the two ventures. Cha Bar was a book Cafe which was launched in 2000 in Kolkata and which now has some 30 outlets in major cities.

This phenomena is not limited to India of course. Many Western bookshops have coffee-drinking facilities or in-house cafes.

It seems that many of us agree with the suggestion that browsing books and drinking coffee is a pleasurable exercise.

Interestingly, as we have reported recently, a study has been in the news of late which suggests that the level of noise in a Cafe (around 70 decibels) is conducive to creative people   not too noisy to be distracting, not too quiet to stifle.

Similarly, there have been suggestions that Cafeeine can stimulate the mind.

Whatever the reason, the marriage between books and coffee seems to be a winning one.