When I recently made my way to this old traditional coffee shop in the back lanes of Muharraq, Bahrain, I expected to find the place as bustling as ever. Instead, there were only these three gentlemen sitting there waiting for the place to open.
Why is it like that, I asked? “Most of those who came here earlier have died – many of old age and many more have succumbed to Corona,” said one of them. “The last two years have been very traumatic,” he added.
“We have been coming here for years,” said a second gentleman. “We are retired and gathered here to talk, have coffee, the sheesha and exchange notes. The pandemic shut down such places and by the time restrictions were eased, we realized many of our friends weren’t around any more.”
The third gentleman said the opening hours of the shop have been severely curtailed as well. “We come here and wait for it to open – but it’s certainly not like the old times – the zing is missing. People do come but it’ll never be the same again.”
The unoccupied tables and the looks on the gents’ faces tell a story, of course – and it’s not a happy one.
I dug out a “happy” picture of the same coffee shop taken before the pandemic disrupted our lives and found so much of life, energy and vigour in the shot.
Hopefully, this Muharraq icon will be “reborn” one day and come back to its old glorious days.
MANDEEPSINGS 