An Elephant That Loves Coffee.

cartoon-elephant-10093914It happens only in India!

I had reason to use this phrase recently on my visit to my native place.

My daughter in law and her aunt wanted to see my hometown in Trinelvelli District in Tamil Nadu.

As we were driving down from the city, we passed through the temple town of Alvaar-thiru-nagar.

A huge temple stood testimony to its fame as a temple town. There was a chariot or Ratham parked outside the temple portals which would be pulled or run only on auspicious occasions.

My daughter in law’s aunt suddenly remembered a story that she had read  in a local magazine about this town,

There was a coffee stall near the temple walls which was widely known.

The temple elephant stops here on its rounds everyday.

And why?

Because he just loves their frothing coffee.

This amused me. An elephant addicted to coffee decoction? I realized that I had a good story for talkalittledo.

The driver of our rented car knew the very shop and he drove us to it. The time was 3 pm and there was no activity going on at the stall. The workers had spread mats on the floor and were dozing comfortably.

Seeing our car, one young man came out. He was about 20 years old and had a smiling face.

“Is this the shop where an elephant drinks coffee every day” I asked

“Yes,” He nodded.

“Will the elephant be coming now to drink coffee?”

“Only in the morning, when the mahout takes him to the river for bath”

“And how does the elephant drink the coffee?”

“The mahout pours into its mouth.”

“And the elephant likes that?

“Yes, he loves it”

Can you serve us coffee now?


“Why not?”

“Not yet time. Only at 3.30 pm we get fresh milk and we start to brew.”coffee-100205603

The boy was smiling all through our conversation.

And the funny part was, the boy had a defect in his eyes, which made him bat his eye lids every few seconds.

This amused my daughter in law and her aunt and they were laughing uncontrollably in the car.

“That coffee stall guy was smitten by you. He just could not stop smiling and winking at you.” They teased me mercilessly.

I did not hear the end of it all through our drive down south.

But we were disappointed that we had not seen the famous pachyderm with a weakness for coffee nor had we tasted the beverage from that much-publicized stall.

A coffee joint that served its human customers each morning…only after the elephant had had his cuppa!!

How unique is that?

Like I said,

“This happens only in India”

 Story By:Gulsum Basheer@talkalittledo.




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8 Responses to An Elephant That Loves Coffee.

  1. mvshan1 says:

    One more interesting story from my very talented friend , Gulsum.Tomorrow morning when you watch me on Facetime drinking coffee hope I don’t remind you of the elephant.

  2. Haja says:

    Amusing story. Now I know what to feed, if I have a pet elephant. LOL.

  3. Naushad says:

    I have decided to stop drinking coffee from today.
    But really amusing story non the less. I wonder which coffee shop this is. Have I seen it ????

  4. malathi says:


  5. Ashiq says:

    Soon we will have a new television talk show.. Coffee with Ele (phant)!!

  6. Parveen Rehana says:

    Amusing anectode…….. Keep them coming!!!!!

  7. TBM says:

    I’m more of a tea drinker myself, but would love to see the elephant enjoy his cup of Joe!

  8. Alyssa Al Alawi, UAE says:

    Haha! That was so enjoyable! I was away for a while and missed a lot of your stories, now it is great to be back, I can see you are going from strength to strength! Hope you print a compilation of all your stories some day!



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