The Pak Tea House was one of the most loved and recognised cultural landmarks of Lahore. Many have pinned down its demise on problems of urban development and the famous chai khana becoming intellectually stale before it became financially burdensome. All these problems pointed out by writers like Ayesha Siddiqa and Ahmad Rafay Alam stand but the situation surrounding its demise are debatable.
Do such places which acquire symbolic significance die “soulless,” as Ms. Siddiqa argues? This loses weight as both writers agree that those who used to flock to and populate Tea House after its closure dispersed and found new places, though not matching to Tea House’s symbolic status.
As a matter of fact, when the business of Tea House’s proprietor suffered or he thought of bettering his lot, he took to doing something else instead of entertaining the literati. The known literary figures visiting Tea House at the time intervened and the decision was sort of put on hold. Again as the enterprise was not sustainable, a cut-off date was announced.
This spurred a flurry of hectic efforts on the part of certain Tea House ‘fans’ to save it from the hands of its business-minded proprietor. Significant is the fact that litigation was also resorted to involving the proprietor. Whatever the details of the Save the Tea House Campaign are, finally the Tea House, a private business, and at the same time a historic place of literary significance closed down.
Ideas seeking government to act were floated and tested during the Save the Tea House Campaign. Also, for sure, no such thing as private initiative was witnessed then. Instead, the fans of the Tea House trampling its proprietor’s right to use his property as he wished tried to force him morally, socially, and legally not to put his property to any other use but of their choice.
The demise of the Pak Tea House is symptomatic of the crisis of intellectual independence and private initiative in Pakistan. The premises is still there, existing with its symbolic glory, waiting for someone with entrepreneurial spirit to make use of its huge potential, who would turn it once again into Pak Tea House? Let’s see who reinvents the Pak Tea House!
DR KHALIL AHMED
Lahore