GUWAHATI, Nov 11 - During the early years of the seventh decade of the last century, eating out was more or less an alien concept for the citizens of Guwahati. No doubt, Panbazar with its host of restaurants could claim to have decent arrangements for tea, snacks and sweets, but unlike today it was not something usual for one to take reprieve from the trouble of cooking at home and have lunch or dinner out whenever one so desired.
By the mid-seventies, high quality hotels with lodging arrangements and food had come up and there were five or more of them in the city. These hotels provided food in their dining halls even to non-boarders, but normally it was only in the event of parties or to celebrate special occasions that people took advantage of this facility. Stadium Guest House, the brainchild of the late Singhapurush Radha Govinda Baruah, too was a classy hotel and it was open to the public for both food and lodging and also for stray customers whose interest was food alone.
It was during the early seventies that an enterprising couple set a trend of sorts by introducing something novel to the city and the region. It was an amazing new way of introducing what could be called �fast food� to the people of the city. It was the late Amal Hazarika � popularly known as Bhaimon � and his wife Bandana Hazarika � who started a small fast food outlet which they named B�s Pekoe. The name B�s Pekoe again has a story behind it. Pekoe is high quality black tea derived from fresh tea leaves and Bhaimon, a tea buff having served in tea gardens for several years, wanted to start a retail tea outlet. B stood for Bandana and it was meant to be Bandana�s shop selling tea. But the Hazarika family�s trip to New Delhi and a visit to the famous restaurant Nirula�s at Connaught Place changed the whole plan. Bandana Hazarika was inspired to try something on the lines of Nirula�s that served both fast food and the rest of the menu that a standard restaurant did. And B�s Pekoe as a fast food outlet was the outcome. It started on a modest note in 1973 near the Laxmi Service petrol depot and later shifted to a bigger accommodation opposite Goswami Service in the early eighties till it winded up in 1998.
From day one B�s Pekoe showed signs of drawing people�s attention, interest and curiosity. Items like fish cake, vegetable roll, chicken roll, hamburger � both veg and non-veg � and varieties of sandwiches proved to be widely popular. Very soon people took to carefully prepared fish cakes, rolls, hamburgers, sandwiches and special chops made of sardines by Bandana Hazarika herself. With the items being tasty and prices quite reasonable, B�s Pekoe came to stay as the first fast food joint in the city as also in the State, for years to come.
While B�s Pekoe was a place where one could get light refreshments, tea and beverages, Amal Hazarika (Bhaimon) arranged for a special item not to be found anywhere else but in his shop, and that happened to be juice of star fruit (kardoi in Assamese).
The place had a decent crowd as its patrons and regular presence of particularly a few select people at the eatery enhanced its attraction. I can never forget one very spirited and interesting person who, with his wit and humour, turned the place into a magical one. He was the late Prasenjit Dowerah, an acclaimed artist whose famous paintings still adorn a number of offices of commercial houses and hotels besides residences. Two gentlemen always clad in dhoti and kurta like a typical Bengali gentleman, regularly visited B�s Pekoe. One was Barin Das who owned a company that produced Aspoline, the skin cream that is still in the market and son of famous Rajabala Das, the founder principal of Handique Girls� College, and the second gentleman was the late Basanta Baruah, a professor of English literature at Cotton College. The two along with artist Dowerah added to the gaiety of B�s Pekoe with their lively discussions, wit and humour. Very unfortunately, Barin Das went missing in 1980 and he could not be traced.
Among other patrons of B�s Pekoe were prominent people like celebrated poet and writer the late Navakanta Baruah, celebrated Assamese film artiste Bijoy Shankar, singer and academician Birendranath Datta and a galaxy of other well-known people. B�s Pekoe and my close attachment to it along with my old friend Pradip Acharya, then a young professor of English literature at Cotton College, still remains etched in my memory.
