Some coffee, some culture, some cash....

By Anita Joshua

NEW DELHI, MARCH 31. ``Where contemplation is as much a part of the menu as cappucino'', it stands to reason that visitors will not be hurried out once the bills have been paid and tips collected. Well, this is the promise with which Diva Art Cafe opened at the Academy of Fine Arts & Literature near Siri Fort here on Saturday in the presence of some leading lights from the city's art circuit including the Grand Old Man of Indian art, Mr. B. C. Sanyal.

Whether Diva Art Cafe will live up to this claim remains to be seen, but for now it is beckoning culture vultures to come and ``linger over newspapers in conversation with friends over coffee in an art-filled ambience''. The idea, if you please, is to provide the ambience that drew Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce and a host of other aspiring artists to Paris in the 1920s and '30s to ``live the good life, write and find fame''.

So, too, here now with up-and-coming artists being allowed to display their works at the cafe in an arrangement that suits all concerned. While the cafe managers can brighten up their interiors with art works for no extra cost, the artists not only get to mount their works but an opportunity of finding buyers. A quarter of the proceeds will go to the management.

Billed as the Capital's first art cafe, the driving force behind the 40-cover Diva Art Cafe is Ms. Ritu Dalmia who runs the Italian restaurant Diva in Greater Kailash-II here. Unlike Diva -- which is a niche restaurant -- the accent here is on health food and, according to Ritu, ``primarily stuff that I like to eat''.

Stating that she had always wanted to have a restaurant, art cafe and book shop all rolled into one, Ms. Dalmia asserts that Diva Art Cafe is her true calling. ``The restaurant in G.K. is purely a commercial concern; this is where my heart is,'' says the restaurateur who also has an Indian outlet called Vama in Chelsea, London.

Nestled in a corner of the Academy, the cafe strives for an ambience of a time bygone right from the picket fence that sets it apart from the rest of the property. A cobbled pathway lined with garden chairs leads up to a tile-roofed restaurant which will also have a ``Health Juice Bar.''

Though aimed at providing the city's artists and writers -- particularly the new kids on the block -- a place they can call their own, the cafe is by no means cheap. Neither is it for those who prefer to dig into regular food. Like art that constantly explores and defies categorisation, the spread here is ``conditioned'' for those with an adventurous palate.

No doubt a new concept for New Delhi, but the old still has a place here. Not only was the established order out in strength at the inauguration on Saturday, the opening week will also see an exhibition of the early works of Mr. Sanyal, now in his late nineties, giving both the young and the old reason to celebrate today. But the one question that one overheard at the inaugural ceremony is: Will the fate of Diva Art Cafe be any different from ABC, the book cafe that opened on the same premises with much fanfare but had to shut shop subsequently?

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