In its last few days, it's Business as usual at Cafe Samovar

It's packed, hot and noisy. The last few days at Cafe Samovar look the busiest as the clatter of cutlery can be heard from the kitchen to the entrance, where people have formed a queue for their lunches and afternoon siestas.

As the famous parathas, cutlets, jal jeera and guava juice keep coming, so do the customers, much to the delight and sadness of the staff busy sweating it out in the heat.

TV Mohanan has been working as the manager since 1982 and you can sense the resignation in him. He shouts at a customer who threatens to complain to the owner. "Madam is my mother!" he exclaims.

From Kerala, Mohanan has been busy making bills ever since the news of Cafe Samovar shutting down started doing the rounds in media. He is inundated with phone calls, asking about the working hours and if the place is really closing down. He says they usually see 300 people on regular weekends, and now, there are more than a thousand turning up every day, especially during lunch hour.

"Madam told me about the cafe shutting a week ago. We will think of another job once we wrap up from here. Right now, we are not thinking of anything else. Not a single employee has decided what s/he plans to do. We don't have time," Mohanan says.

He adds that he has been offered many jobs by concerned patrons. "One man gave me his visiting card and said he will buy a plot of land and put up a restaurant if I am willing to run it. I will think of what to choose once we are done vacating the place and surrendering the licence, among other formalities," he says wistfully.

Meanwhile, a group of women are being interviewed on camera, a boom mic hangs above them. Documentary filmmaker Deepika Sharma, a friend of the owner's granddaughter, was asked by the family to document the last few days of the cafe. "We were discussing whether to document the final days or film it, we have decided to make a film. I have been shooting for the last few days and I understand that it's a place for those from the '70s. So many love stories have come up, you can see how the feel of the place is still maintained, with no one asking you to get up and leave. You can daydream all day. The staff is generous. Many people have come back after 20 years on finding out that it's closing," Sharma says.

California resident Yasmin Mogul, who comes to Mumbai every year for two-odd months, reminisces how she used to bunk college and come to the cafe with her friends. Expressing her disappointed over and over again, she says, "We used to discuss economic theories and studies and what not. Is there no way to reverse the order?"

The haggling continues and bills keep coming. The Yamaha stereo system beside Mohanan pauses for a long time before the next instrumental piece fills the cafe, but nobody notices that the music has stopped.