Saturday, May 16, 2009

Local cafe

John Doveton lent his name to a school in Purasaiwalkam over 150 years ago and in the years since, his name has been used for things much more than the school itself; it has gone on to represent the whole area around the school. It has been mangled in more ways than one - a set of Anglo-Indians were fond of pronouncing it 'Duff-ton' rather than the 'Dough-ton' and that became so popular that I am pleasantly surprised to see the Doveton spelling being used, without having been altered to match the phonetic effect.

One example is this cafe, right under the flyover. Maybe it is a bad example, because it has been there for over 35 years, serving as a hangout for the late-hippie generation and then going on to what it is today. Doveton Cafe is a good place to step into for a cup of coffee and then sit down to ramble on about world affairs (and those of your college-mates', too) without having to worry about how fast the meter is running!


4 comments:

Ram N said...

the same day i had a shot about ELS Book shop ... which is just opposite to this cafe ..... and also lost one more story / pic to you in this cafe. :)

Shantaram said...

@ Ram: Of course not - you'll post your picture, surely! Missed the ELS bookshop, was probably standing right in front of it!

isaacwjones said...

Love this cafe - every year that I'm in Chennai I look forward to paratha, dosai and poori here. And of course the fantastic coffee! Long live Doveton cafe!

isaacwjones said...

Love this cafe. Every year that I am in Chennai I look forward to heading here for dosai, paratha and poori. Not to mention the awesome coffee!