Sign up for afaqs! Newsletters
Café Coffee Day patrons get nostalgic on social media...
Following the death of its founder VG Siddhartha, many users took to social media to express disbelief and share stories...
Cafe Coffee Day's Founder VG Siddhartha was reported missing since July 29. NDTV reported that he was last seen on the bridge over the Netravati river and on July 31, his body was found by fishermen from Hoige Bazaar, not too far from the mouth of the river. News agency ANI published a copy of the letter Siddhartha wrote along with an enclosed list of his assets. In the letter, he stated that he had failed as an entrepreneur.
The truth is, Siddhartha was far from a failure. With Cafe Coffee Day, he brought the culture of cafes to India. While researching the brand, we hit upon the revelation that in India, before the advent of WeWork or 91Springboard, Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) unintentionally became the first of its kind, co-working space in the country. It was a space that didn't penalise customers who would spend long periods of time there, allowed them internet access and the beverages and snacks served may not have always been pocket-friendly, but this never deterred patrons.
On Twitter, when #RIPSiddhartha began trending, many users pitched in with posts that expressed their shock and disbelief at the death of CCD's founder. There were stories of friends, memories of past lovers and present spouses and interestingly, quite a few businessmen, journalists and start-up founders who took to the medium to talk about how CCD affected their businesses and their lives.
As a mark of respect, Cafe Coffee Day changed their logo on their social channels from red and white to greyscale. Outlets across India remained shut for the day as a sign of mourning.
We had put out a call for stories and anecdotes on afaqs!’ social media handles. Here are some of the responses we got.
