The Palaces of Memory: Stuart Freedman's unique perspective on Indian Coffee House [Photos]

A waiter serves schoolgirls beneath a portrait of Rabindranath Tagore in the Indian Coffee House, Kolkata, 2013. Stuart Freedman/Tasveer

Men sit and talk in the Indian Coffee House, Baba Kharak Singh Marg, New Delhi. The Coffee House dates back almost fifty years, first in central Connaught Place, then Janpath and now at the top of a rather shabby shopping centre. Still run by the Indian Coffee Workers Cooperative Society, it was a regular haunt for politicos in Delhi and It's clientelle is still well read and intellectual. Stuart Freedman/Tasveer

Sangaran, a waiter who has worked at the coffee shop for 17 years. The Indian Coffee House, Kollam (now closed), 2013. Stuart Freedman/Tasveer

A portrait of kitchen hand Brij Nandan Yadav in the the Indian Coffee House, Baba Kharak Singh Marg, New Delhi, 2011. Stuart Freedman/Tasveer

Indian Coffee House, Chandigarh, 2013. Stuart Freedman/Tasveer

The interior of the Indian Coffee House, Kollam, 2013. Stuart Freedman/Tasveer