Plates stuffed with bun maska (bread and butter), freshly cooked samosas and cups of scorching and creamy Irani chai.
These are among the frequent scenes you can see in a Persian model restaurant in India.
Popularly often known as Irani cafes, these iconic eating places – with their signature marble-topped tables, old school clocks, checkered flooring and a novel menu – have been a part of India's tradition for over 100 years.
Their affect extends past India: Dishoom, certainly one of London's hottest restaurant chains, was impressed by these cafes.
They arrived in cities like Mumbai and Pune throughout the 18th and nineteenth centuries when there was Persian immigration from Iran.
There’s a third lesser-known pocket of the nation – the southern metropolis of Hyderabad – the place these cafes have been an intrinsic a part of the native tradition for many years.
However regardless of their many charms and wealthy cultural heritage, the town's cafes – like their counterparts in Pune and Mumbai – are on the verge of dying, with house owners blaming rising costs, competitors from fast-food eating places and altering shopper tastes.
Even at this time Hyderabad has the most important variety of Irani cafes after Mumbai. Town was a middle for Iranian commerce within the late nineteenth century.
Persian was broadly spoken beneath the Muslim Nizam or princely rule. Nilufer Cafe, situated within the previous a part of the town, was really named after the Nizam's daughter-in-law, an Ottoman princess.
This was additionally the interval when elements of contemporary Pakistan have been situated in Hyderabad, as Iran was its neighbor, making the town simply accessible to Persian merchants.
Many of the households who migrated to Hyderabad and different Indian cities escaped persecution and famine and returned residence. Some got here in the hunt for higher jobs and enterprise.
Their arrival coincided with colonial rule when the British actively promoted tea ingesting tradition within the nation.
When the Iranians arrived, they introduced their very own model of constructing tea with cream and condensed milk, giving rise to the distinctive Iranian chai tradition within the cities.
“Initially, tea was bought beneath the title Sai Khana and was drunk solely by Muslims,” says Hyderabad-based historian Mohammad Safiullah. “However quickly, all religions caught on to its distinctive taste.”
Within the twentieth century, there have been Irani cafes on each nook and cranny in Hyderabad.
Clients sip lip-smacking tea as they chat for hours at espresso retailers.
In some cafes, patrons can play their favourite songs on the jukebox for a small price.
Historians say that these cafes performed an necessary position in breaking down social and non secular boundaries and have become an necessary a part of the town's public life.
“The Irani cafes in Hyderabad stand as an emblem of secularism,” mentioned historian Paravastu Lokeshwar. “There was no spiritual connotation in these names. Folks of all religions and castes supported them.”
Now they’re beneath menace.
From an estimated 450 cafes 20 years in the past, Hyderabad now has solely 125, mentioned Jalil Farooq Roose, proprietor of The Grand Lodge, a well-liked Irani cafe.
Mr Roos's maternal grandfather arrived from Iran in 1951 and took over the resort, which was began in 1935 by 12 Iranians.
“We used to promote 8,000-9,000 cups a day. Now we solely promote 4,000 cups a day,” he instructed the BBC.
He cites competitors from quick meals chains as one motive. Hyderabad, now certainly one of India's quickest rising cities, was a quiet little city till the early Nineteen Nineties. Within the mid-90s, the town turned an industrial powerhouse when it joined the IT growth in India.
Together with this variation got here financial reforms within the nation which allowed international quick meals chains and cafes to penetrate the Indian market. Just like Iranian cafes, these meals joints provide prolonged seating choices, however with a lot better facilities and extra choices.
Mr Roos mentioned most Irani cafes function from rented premises as patrons want massive areas to chill out and unwind over tea.
However the rise in actual property costs in Hyderabad has pressured many house owners to look elsewhere.
“Inflation has additionally been affected. Costs of tea powder and milk have tripled from what they have been 5 years in the past,” he added.
Others say the variety of Iranian households getting into the enterprise has additionally declined.
“The present technology isn’t within the cafe and restaurant enterprise. They need different jobs and plenty of are migrating to different nations,” mentioned Mahmoud, proprietor of the favored Farasha restaurant that goes by the identical title.
However regardless of the challenges, there are nonetheless some within the enterprise who proceed to swim in opposition to the tide.
Syed Mohammed Razak manages the Pink Rose restaurant in Hyderabad. His grandfather emigrated from Tehran and established the Metropolis Gentle Lodge within the Nineteen Seventies. Later, Mr Razak's father began the Pink Rose restaurant.
An engineer and graphic designer by occupation, Mr Razak admits that “simply promoting chai and biscuits” is neither simple nor worthwhile.
He has now launched new dishes to the menu to draw extra clients and is utilizing his graphic designing abilities to broaden the enterprise and advertise on-line.
“I need to keep on my household's legacy,” he mentioned.
And it's not simply the house owners, there are additionally loyal clients – a lot of whom have been frequenting these cafes for generations – who say they at all times come again for “one other cup of Irani Chai”.
“Irani tea is part of my life and I like the style of it each time I’m going out,” mentioned Yani, an everyday on the Grand Lodge by one title.
“Even at this time there’s nothing like that.”