Eat, drink, leave

A travel cafe where you don’t have to pay for your tea or coffee.

Ever wished to taste specialty coffees like arabica and robusta, teas like jasmine, Darjeeling, Assam, Nilgiri and Green tea for free? We all travel, make physical and imaginary trips, but seldom come across places that serve the above and allow us to meet other travel buffs to share experiences and tips. With that motive and “to outdo Facebook’s ubiquitousness”,

Ajay Jain, 37, started Kunzum Travel Café this June, Delhi’s first and only hub for all travel enthusiasts. “There is so much to be told about India, Lonely Planet wasn’t doing enough. That’s how I decided to start a blog and the rest followed.”

Recreating the McLeodganj experience of the Buddhist haunts, the petite café stands out in the meandering lanes of Hauz Khas Village. A meditating Buddha against a blue backdrop, a yellow-green auto on a steel-grey road, a miniature Red Fort, and the green, red, blue, white, yellow colours of the Ladakh flag painted across the entrance make it easily locatable. Black Manipuri pottery mugs sit pretty on the dark-brown wooden coffee tables which, along with cane chairs and colourful floor cushions, adorn the wooden floor. Travel books and pictorial travelogues are stacked in a little cane rack library and visitors’ experiences of various voyages adorn a pin-up board.

Over cups of French-press coffee, the beaming orange kurta-clad owner Ajay Jain speaks about the café’s modest beginnings. The travel writer, photographer and former journalist thought out of the box to start a publishing label and a travel café out of his travel blog www.kunzum.com. The blog, launched in 2007, covers travel features, reviews, anecdotes, tips and information about various places in India. The name is derived from Kunzum Pass, located at 4,590 metres to the north of Leh, gateway to Lahaul-Spiti in Himachal Pradesh.

But how does his business run given that nobody is obliged to pay even for their coffee? Jain laughs, “You don’t have to pay, however you can drop in whatever sum you like in the donation box placed next to the entrance. People have contributed from Rs 5 to Rs 500. Visitors can also avail of the free wi-fi Internet here.” The writer of Peep Peep Don’t Sleep, a book on funny road signs and Postcards from Ladakh, a pictorial travelogue, says, “I run the café by selling my books that are priced under Rs 400 and my photographs between Rs 500 and Rs 20,000.” Now even the community is giving back. Recently Jain was gifted a guitar and Tibetan drums for the café. The café also organises events — poetry sessions by Delhi Poetree group, debates, music gigs, photography workshops and, with Delhi Heritage Walk, a walk around Hauz Khas Village.

Kunzum Travel Café is open all days except Mondays from 11 am to 7:30 pm at T-49, Hauz Khas Village. Ph: 011-26513949