Get Lucky after death : The Young India

Shaival Thakkar writes from Ahmedabad about the restaurant that is built around graves

All of us will die one day and we cannot escape death. However, life would be difficult if we constantly thought about our mortality Most of us

keep away from thoughts of death by involving ourselves in different pursuits. But what if we are told that it is not only possible to live with such morbid thoughts but also to eat with them? Many brains have speculated about what happens after death. But has anyone come across a quotable quote that says, “After death, there comes a restaurant!”

Since approximately 250 years, there exists a graveyard in the Lal Darwaja area of Ahmedabad city. Then one day, about 53 years from today, someone started a tea-stall right next to this burial ground. Varnaraj Nair, the manager of Lucky Restaurant, explains, “Lucky started as a small place. When we wanted to expand, the government asked us to take up the responsibility of maintaining the cemetery.”
So we have this popular restaurant built around graves.

There are at least 22 bright green coloured tombs of various shapes and sizes in this restaurant. Trunks of trees shoot right out of the ceiling; one in the dining hall and the other inside the kitchen.

“Lucky was only famous for its chai. The first chai from Lucky cost 30 paisa and now it costs 6 Rs. People burn petrol worth 20 Rs just to come here and have chai.” says Nair.

Lucky offers a variety of foods including Punjabi, South Indian and the popular Gujarati Thali. It is known for its food quality and is considered affordable as all food items are priced between 10 and 50 Rs. “People were afraid to enter Lucky and eat next to the graves. We convinced them with our good cleanliness standards and our tasty meals.” says Nair.

The name Lucky is a favourite with many food stalls. Three sandwich stalls in the Law Garden area of Ahmedabad are called Lucky. And they are all parked right next to each other. Perhaps, the idea is that if you fail to notice the main Lucky, you can always eat at the smaller ones. But mind you, they don’t contain any graves.

Whenever I go to this restaurant, I feel as if the place is giving me an implicit message. Maybe, it is telling me that I am very lucky to be alive, relishing good food and having nice conversations. And also that I should have as many good times as possible before they build a restaurant around my grave.

This is my philosophical interpretation.

I like Mr.Nair’s interpretation much better. He says, “Here, you can sit and relax. Lucky is a top meeting point.”

Photographs: Yash Thakkar

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