Islamabad, Aug 11: Far away from Indo-Pak talking shops, here’s a real confidence building measure. Civil Junction coffee shop, a funkily decorated tiny haven for coffee drinkers in Gol Market, Islamabad, is Pakistan’s first ‘independent’ coffee bar. It serves South Asia harmony brews — a ‘Vajpayee’s Cup of Coffee’, or a ‘Musharraf’s Guesspress’, which you can sip while biting into ‘American Democracy’.
London School of Economics-educated Arshed Bhatti, who runs the place, believes Indo-Pak conferences are ‘‘too much empty talk’’. The need of the hour, he feels, is combined coffee shops (and maybe the odd hospital). Civil Junction, that opened last year, is his answer.
Pakistani children with Indian MPs at Wagah The menu describes ‘Vajpayee’s Cup of Coffee’ as ‘‘Old, poetically smooth, chronically alone, mythologically brewed and firmly soft. There is no Foreign Hand in its making. It’s well-cooked and definitely not RAW. Served with conservative cookies’’.

‘Musharraf’s Guesspress’ is ‘‘not old, anybody’s guess, seasoned and intensely mature. Khaki, softly firm, brewed under a high pressure of discipline. Its base is very, very strong but the real kick is in the aftertaste’’.
Other delicacies of Civil Junction include hot meals called American Democracy, Karzai’s Kava, Justice, General Sales Tax and UNDP, which stands for Ultra Naive Doodh Patti.
‘‘There are people who have set up glittering shops. Shops selling Kashmir, CBMs and Indo-Pak dialogue,’’ says Bhatti. ‘‘These shops earn them a lot of money and bring them career opportunities. They get together and let off some steam. But I let off real steam in my coffee bar. My wish is that maybe one day Vajpayee will come here instead of going to those other shops.’’
The small park opposite the bar (the marijuana area, grins Bhatti) is called Nuclear Free Zone. In a country without Barista, Starbucks or any other coffee bar except those in five-star hotels, Civil Junction is the heir of the legendary Pak Tea House in Lahore, where once Faiz, Iqbal, Mallika Pukhraj and Iqbal Bano gathered to discuss life and their dreams for Pakistan.
‘‘I believe in coffee for activism,’’ says Bhatti, who wants to start more political coffee bars all over South Asia. ‘‘People who drink coffee,’’ he believes, ‘‘are creative and idealist and a force of good all over the world.’’
Bhatti’s family belongs to Faridkot and he is, he says proudly, ‘‘an over-educated son of an illiterate mother’’. He worked as a journalist, civil servant, before leaving to pursue the coffee dream. His other dream is to set up a ‘Newly Single’ society between India and Pakistan. His own marriage recently broke up and he knows there are many across the border who are in a similar position as he is.
‘‘I’d like people to forget they are Indian and Pakistani. Instead I’d like to think of themselves as people who may be just married or recently divorced. My Newly Single Society won’t stop the war but at least we will have some fun.’’
Rahmat, 24, a management student, and Imran, 24, a poet, are regulars at Civil Junction. They say they love the Vajpayee, Musharraf coffees and never miss American Democracy.
‘‘This is a lovely place,’’ says Imran, an accountant whose passion is Urdu poetry. ‘‘You can think, it’s peaceful.’’
At 10 pm, the atmosphere is mellow. A Pakistani music group called Cordury is playing some electric guitar. Groups of families, young people, retired generals and bureaucrats sit around on the cane chairs under the stained glass lamps and mirrorwork drapes.
Civil Junction is funded by a sizeable group of loyal patrons and is the only restaurant here that stays open until 1 pm, although Bhatti needs to get regular clearances from the ISI as meetings and discussions here tend to stray to every subject from politics to the quality of Pakistani water. ‘‘Coffee,’’ says Bhatti, ‘‘is sustainable activism.’’