“Despite the large number of cafes and restaurants on the banks of the Karun River in the city of Ahvaz (southwestern Iran), the distinguished one is rare.” This gave an incentive for the young Fadel Khamisi to open the Karon book café, to be a named name and a cultural source, after the area was watered with water Fresh river.
As soon as one enters this cafe, one comes to mind that in a library or a heritage museum, those in charge of it wanted to make it possible for customers to sit and dine in coffee an opportunity to inhale the scent of books lying on shelves close to dining tables.
Inverse relationship
The idea of launching the book café has been trending with the Arabic language teacher in Ahwaz schools, Fadel Khamisi, for years.
When he saw an inverse relationship between the increasing demand for restaurants and cafeterias on the one hand and the vacancy of the city's libraries on the other hand, stressing that he considers his project more cultural than economic.
Khamisi told Al-Jazeera Net that "the book café project puts attention to food for the soul and the mind as its first priority, and that food for the body ranks second in it," adding that from the first day he was keen to provide the necessary calm to encourage customers to read with a cup of coffee, tea or food.
He explained that he had bought about one thousand and 500 books to be offered free of charge to those wishing to read, and that the café's customers contributed in their turn to providing the young library with hundreds of other books within a very short period of time.
Good companion
The café's library includes among its flanks books in both Arabic and Persian to attract customers and encourage them to read, away from the Internet and social networking sites, to restore them the pleasure of reading and return to an old friend who had the best friend, but they missed him in recent years for several reasons, the spread of the Internet and smartphones In the foreground.
The cafe organizes from time to time cultural and literary activities, especially sponsoring the signing ceremony for newly published books in the city, as well as providing various other services for all age groups, according to the owner of the project, Fadhel Al-Khamisi, who believes that the cafe has achieved success that exceeded his expectations by attracting a large segment of culture makers. And literature, which led to its transformation into a unique meeting place for Ahwazi intellectuals and writers.
Book Cafe "Karon" puts interest in mind food as one of its priorities (Al Jazeera)
The cafe is characterized by "providing the opportunity to enjoy browsing the papers of books," after the Iranian street lost it recently, according to young Muhammad (one of the cafe's pioneers) who says that the pleasure of his first visit to the cafe before the outbreak of the Corona pandemic remained present in his mind, and kept insisting on him to visit it from time to time. And the other.
Muhammad expressed to Al-Jazeera Net his conviction that such cultural projects constitute a golden opportunity to build oneself and develop skills in an environment full of positive energies, explaining that his city was and still is in dire need of such cultural projects to attract all segments of society and motivate them to read away from the hustle and bustle of life and busy work.
Two cultures overlap
As for the young woman "Shahla", who used to go to the café with her family;
She sees that the art paintings hanging on the walls of the cafe "tell an ancient history that is almost forgotten and is in vain without the shy interest in it." Besides tasting the restaurant and the drink.
She told Al-Jazeera Net that she is keen to spend a few hours on vacation drinking coffee and savoring a delicious dish in the book café.
To encourage children to embrace the culture of reading as the best way to be aware, obtain knowledge and open the doors of thinking.
Khamisi chose the name "Karon" river for his project to be a cultural tributary in his city (the island)
Although the new generation considers that digital books and reading on the screen fulfill the desired purpose - according to Shahla - her generation prefers traditional reading and embracing paper books, as an expression of appreciation for the sources of culture, and expressed her happiness that the café's library contains different titles from Arab and Persian cultures.
The Arab and Persian cultures overlap in all parts of Iran in general, and in the city of Ahwaz in particular, but how good is their meeting this time on the book, which has always been a common denominator to mix the two cultures more and more, until the mixing of coffee blends and other hot drinks has reached to suit all segments of visitors.