On September 15, 2017 the Au Bon Pain (ABP) outlet on the campus shut shop for good. It happened at just a week's notice.
It took us all by surprise. And the surprise must not have been pleasant to most of us.
ABP started off with a controversy. The issues involved in the controversy are not well documented. A few emails that flew around within the IIMB network suggested that there were concerns about whether the store would affect the view of the Open Air Theatre when the convocation proceedings were being webcast.
I cannot say if these concerns were warranted. I did not study those issues. I cannot say for sure if there were other worries or concerns either. But I guess they do not matter any more.
Controversy aside, the administration must be given credit for addressing the various concerns and for putting up a store that served as an affordable watering hole for most people on the campus over the five years that followed. This was in contrast to another similar cafe, the Cafe Coffee Day outlet that attracted very few footfalls.
One can think of many reasons for ABP's success. I believe that the fact it had a wider variety of merchandise at a range of price points, some of which were affordable to nearly everyone, that it was a combination of open and closed spaces that made it all-weather and that it was open 18x7 were perhaps the most significant factors behind its success.
In what was perhaps an unusual distinction it was one of the few places on the IIMB campus that was frequented by faculty and students alike, apart from Amruth Kalash, the other cafe. I consider it unusual because I have often been struck by the fact that outside of the classroom there are very few venues in IIMB where faculty and students are at least seen together at the same time, even if they are not together.
One can point to many other interesting things about ABP. I have overheard startups discussing business plans, fund raising worries and term sheets. I have seen recruitment interviews being held at desks beside me. I am quite positive that when the history of starting up in Bangalore gets written some day ABP at IIMB will find a mention as the place where some highly successful startup was conceived on the cafe's napkin.
Students across various programmes used to run their entire project discussions at the cafe for several hours on end. There were times when the cafe provided chessboards and people used to be blissfully lost in their game. No matter what reason people were there for, the cafe exuded an unhurried air, typical of a campus where time would appear to stand still, to use a cliche.
Campus kids used to have their weekend get togethers as their parents felt they were perfectly safe in that place. Older kids who had left the campus to go their separate ways in life used to have their reunions late into the night, over coffee and sandwiches.
As someone who has spent many evenings, nights and hours there and been a witness to many social events there I can go on and on. The purpose of this blog is not present a paean on ABP as a public place or a campus cafe.
I chose to write this more for the many memories that the place holds for me. Its five years coincided with a phase when I held busy administrative positions, including an extremely hectic four year spell at NSRCEL, IIMB's entrepreneurship centre.
I met some of the most interesting people doing the most interesting things that I have known of at IIMB during those four years. I met them at ABP. Most of them were far younger to me. The cafe's cosy informality allowed me to transcend the barrier of our age difference and helped me have more engaging conversations with these people.
I met with students from IIMB, entrepreneurs, a wide variety of journalists, visitors from other similar centres who wanted to learn from our experience, visitors from within India and outside, government officials who wanted to support the Centre, alumni, colleagues, venture capital investors, potential recruits for the Centre who I hoped be drawn to NSRCEL because of the cafe.
By now you may have gotten a sense of how I ended up spending a good part of my waking hours there, during those five years.
With some of them I developed special relationships that went beyond my time at NSRCEL. I continued to meet them well into my sabbatical and beyond. I made my now unsuccessful attempts to create an intellectual legacy at its desks, within and outside.
My family and I would saunter across if we were totally bored on a wet, rainy evening. All the special attention that we got as faculty and family felt nice, even if it made us self-conscious some times. My sons who are essentially very shy and diffident felt confident and self assured inside the store.
To my family and myself, more so to me, ABP was more than just a watering hole. It was and will remain a reservoir of memories that will come wafting back like the gentle breeze that frequently blows through the night flowering jasmine tree that still stand behind where the cafe was.
As with many other facets of life, many of them are pleasant and bring an involuntary smile to my face. Some of them, leave a dull numbness, reminding one of people and conversations one misses.
Whatever the nature of those memories, I will miss you dear ABP.
Nanni....Namaskaaram...
It took us all by surprise. And the surprise must not have been pleasant to most of us.
ABP started off with a controversy. The issues involved in the controversy are not well documented. A few emails that flew around within the IIMB network suggested that there were concerns about whether the store would affect the view of the Open Air Theatre when the convocation proceedings were being webcast.
I cannot say if these concerns were warranted. I did not study those issues. I cannot say for sure if there were other worries or concerns either. But I guess they do not matter any more.
Controversy aside, the administration must be given credit for addressing the various concerns and for putting up a store that served as an affordable watering hole for most people on the campus over the five years that followed. This was in contrast to another similar cafe, the Cafe Coffee Day outlet that attracted very few footfalls.
One can think of many reasons for ABP's success. I believe that the fact it had a wider variety of merchandise at a range of price points, some of which were affordable to nearly everyone, that it was a combination of open and closed spaces that made it all-weather and that it was open 18x7 were perhaps the most significant factors behind its success.
In what was perhaps an unusual distinction it was one of the few places on the IIMB campus that was frequented by faculty and students alike, apart from Amruth Kalash, the other cafe. I consider it unusual because I have often been struck by the fact that outside of the classroom there are very few venues in IIMB where faculty and students are at least seen together at the same time, even if they are not together.
One can point to many other interesting things about ABP. I have overheard startups discussing business plans, fund raising worries and term sheets. I have seen recruitment interviews being held at desks beside me. I am quite positive that when the history of starting up in Bangalore gets written some day ABP at IIMB will find a mention as the place where some highly successful startup was conceived on the cafe's napkin.
Students across various programmes used to run their entire project discussions at the cafe for several hours on end. There were times when the cafe provided chessboards and people used to be blissfully lost in their game. No matter what reason people were there for, the cafe exuded an unhurried air, typical of a campus where time would appear to stand still, to use a cliche.
Campus kids used to have their weekend get togethers as their parents felt they were perfectly safe in that place. Older kids who had left the campus to go their separate ways in life used to have their reunions late into the night, over coffee and sandwiches.
As someone who has spent many evenings, nights and hours there and been a witness to many social events there I can go on and on. The purpose of this blog is not present a paean on ABP as a public place or a campus cafe.
I chose to write this more for the many memories that the place holds for me. Its five years coincided with a phase when I held busy administrative positions, including an extremely hectic four year spell at NSRCEL, IIMB's entrepreneurship centre.
I met some of the most interesting people doing the most interesting things that I have known of at IIMB during those four years. I met them at ABP. Most of them were far younger to me. The cafe's cosy informality allowed me to transcend the barrier of our age difference and helped me have more engaging conversations with these people.
I met with students from IIMB, entrepreneurs, a wide variety of journalists, visitors from other similar centres who wanted to learn from our experience, visitors from within India and outside, government officials who wanted to support the Centre, alumni, colleagues, venture capital investors, potential recruits for the Centre who I hoped be drawn to NSRCEL because of the cafe.
By now you may have gotten a sense of how I ended up spending a good part of my waking hours there, during those five years.
With some of them I developed special relationships that went beyond my time at NSRCEL. I continued to meet them well into my sabbatical and beyond. I made my now unsuccessful attempts to create an intellectual legacy at its desks, within and outside.
My family and I would saunter across if we were totally bored on a wet, rainy evening. All the special attention that we got as faculty and family felt nice, even if it made us self-conscious some times. My sons who are essentially very shy and diffident felt confident and self assured inside the store.
To my family and myself, more so to me, ABP was more than just a watering hole. It was and will remain a reservoir of memories that will come wafting back like the gentle breeze that frequently blows through the night flowering jasmine tree that still stand behind where the cafe was.
As with many other facets of life, many of them are pleasant and bring an involuntary smile to my face. Some of them, leave a dull numbness, reminding one of people and conversations one misses.
Whatever the nature of those memories, I will miss you dear ABP.
Nanni....Namaskaaram...
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