The Coffee Maker On Car Street, Udupi

K. H. Upadhyay has two old coffee machines in his shop on Car Street, Udupi. The locally made coffee grinder, its hopper painted red, is placed to one corner of the shop, by a wooden chair in front of a cupboard stocking among other provisions the 501 brand washing soap bars wrapped in yellow packing. The coffee roaster is to the back of the shop, worn from use and rusting as much from age as from lack of use. I cast another glance at the bars of 501 washing soap. Growing up I remember asking for the soap thus: "Ek Paanch Sau Ek dena."

“The coffee roaster at the back of the shop, I do not use now. I have a new one back home,” he explained as he accompanied me to the dark, airless room where the rusting coffee roaster stood, its hopper empty of coffee beans and the chimney silent.


Abandoned to time, abandoned to memory, and where coffee beans once rolled rhythmically when the cooling tray rotated, filling the store with fragrance of freshly roasted coffee beans, the coffee roaster now finds use for its cooling tray as storage space to hold empty plastic bags among other things!


He pulled out the metal trier from its slot under a small, circular transparent window that allowed the coffee maker to peer in while the machine roasted coffee beans. The trier was fashioned with a knob at one end and one half of cylindrical section open at the other so when the coffee maker drew it out along came a sampling of coffee beans that he would check for quality of roasting before deciding to either continue with roasting them or let the roasted coffee beans flow into the circular cooling tray on the outside that rotated, cooling the beans evenly.

“This machine can roast 10 kilos of coffee beans. We usually roasted 7 kilos at a time, which typically took about 16 minutes,” he said.

A temperature panel indicating temperature is consulted and once the temperature reaches the desired level the coffee beans are dropped from the hopper into the roasting drum that rotates, roasting the beans evenly. Every once in a while the coffee maker draws the trier to check on the quality of roasting.


Coffee is fresh when roasted and ground at the point of sale. In a large steel container on the floor roasted coffee beans lent fragrance to the shop. Upadhyay reached into the container and held out for me Arabica coffee beans in his open palm.

“I source raw coffee beans from Chikamangalur and roast them depending upon demand at my shop. Some prefer to buy roasted beans while others prefer to buy ground coffee,” he said. “Roasted Arabica coffee beans sell for Rs. 260/- a kilo.”

Chikmangalur (also spelled Chikmagalur) lies to the south-west of Karnataka, a little over 170 kilometres from Mangalore and is credited with the origin of coffee in India about 350 years ago. Apparently a Muslim pilgrim by the name of Baba Budan smuggled a few beans while on pilgrimage to Mecca and planted them in is garden in the Chandra Drona hills on his return to Chikmagalur. The hills are now named after him.


We had stopped by K.H. Upadhyay’s shop to explore locally made farsan stacked on the counter to the front of the shop before happening upon the coffee grinder and roaster inside. Chaklis, Fried Banana Chips, Onion Papad among other things rose from the counter obscuring Upadhyay’s face when we first stepped up to the counter.

Around the bend from Upadhyay’s store the revered Shree Krishna Mutt rises above the shops in quiet grace. With thousands of devotees descending on Udupi to visit the Shree Krishna Math each year they find use for the general provisions that Upadhyay stocks in his store besides farsan and coffee. Twin-blade shaving kits, toothbrushes and toothpaste are displayed prominently on the wall while detergent and washing soaps fill up shelves.


K. H. Upadhyay inherited the shop from his father. The shop is over 40 years old while the coffee roaster is half the age.

The Upadhyays are Brahmins. While the surname is not restricted to Karnataka it is not as common in the state either.


Across the street from the coffee maker’s shop and adjacent to the Chandramouleshwara temple is Bhaskar Tailoring House for ladies. Two elderly male tailors sit at their sewing machines located at opposite ends of the shop. A cupboard placed in the center doubles up as a counter to conduct dealings with customers while another glass cupboard to the back holds clothing material on shelves, dresses sewn awaiting their owners, dresses awaiting sewing, and possibly dresses that were stitched but never picked up.

Abandonment is a recurring theme in old shops in old localities. And time threatens spaces with obscurity resulting from their abandonment.