Have we anything comparable to the Indian Coffee House, that Calcutta adda of writers and artists — from supernovas to greenhorns? No, not quite. Then where did our set of Dhaka Bohemians meet and debate, love and hate each other?

Lately there has been an attempt to revive the Beauty Boarding nostalgia. It worked. Stalwarts of arts and literature met some time back to eulogise the Beauty Boarding contribution to our poetry and painting, fictions and plain intellectualising. This they have done against the temper of time in Bangladesh. Going for class in writing and painting and thinking is now being reviled by the predomi-nantly mastan culture of Dhaka. A derisive term has been invented for those seeking refinement and is being hurled in season and out of season — antel. Beauty Boarding was a loving retreat for such Ontels and hardly a cup of tea went down the gullet without the helping of a profusion of anuami.

A Beauty Boarding Sudhi Sangha was formed last week to carry on with the tradition. A haunt for writers and artists could be revived if the first Beauty Boarding giants start visiting the place regularly. People like Shamsur Rahman and Syed Shamsul Huq, Aminul Islam and Jewel Aich, of course, would attract a crowd of neophytes, not to speak of a mob of curious spectators.

The first post-partition adda was, however, in the Capital Restaurant of Nawabpur Road. After it had broken, stragglers patronised for a time the Rex restaurant of Ahmed Saheb. It is time someone started writing about those wonderful memories.