Zen Café of Jaffna

Sayanthan (left) and  Kesavaraj - The two brothers that created the Zen Cafe of Jaffna

The Zen Café in Jaffna is a typical sample of youth entrepreneurship that focuses on youth integration across ethnicity. 

It is the only café in the entire North of Sri Lanka where you find Sinhalese Baila songs alongside Tamil music. 

It is a place where one has no chance for seats after 3pm when the Jaffna university student population – Tamil youth, Sinhalese and Muslims converge in throngs.

 The positive vibe is palpable.

If you are jaded in your thinking and feel that life is over for you, then try going to the Zen Café in Jaffna. It is located in Kokuvil close to the Jaffna University. You may see life differently and realise the happiness that young people feel eating the simplest of snacks is best emulated across all age boundaries. 

This café is run on the philosophy of peace. It is the soul effort of two brothers, aged 22 and 25 who had taken it upon themselves to uplift their family while freeing themselves from the ‘Nine-to-Five’ structure. What we place today here is not a detailed description as we would like (on account of page space limitation) on this signature sample of what youth entrepreneurship could mean for national unity. However this is a synopsis that matches our main write up on Northern investment. 

The Zen Café is on rented premises and has been in existence for the past 10 months. The brothers last month secured a loan from DFCC bank, which they considered a major achievement. They applied the loan to rent another part of the same property so that they can extend the café.

“My brother gave the name for the café. He liked the word Zen which is interpreted as another word for peace in Buddhist linguistics.  For him peace is important and he looks at different ideas across the world – he found the Japanese term Zen,” says 22 year old Thevarasa Kesavaraj known to his friends as Kesap.

His brother, Thevarasa Sayanthan is more mature for his years having taken on family responsibility from a young age. When we meet him last month he was happy because he had just secured the bank loan. 

“I am really happy with this bank. They understood what we are really doing here and did not stress us by taking a long time to decide to give us the money. The decision and the processing was quick. I currently employ four other young people and plan to recruit about two more,” he explains. 

He hopes to be the pioneer of a chain of businesses. Neither he nor his brother has any dearth of business ideas. Within 10 months they created the Zen Café to be an iconic youth hang-out that is known as an instant mood-lifter.

The food is outsourced and affordable. The tea and coffee is worth the money and is what suits a student budget. This is a place that has great potential to be a haven for foreign backpackers who want to witness the youth scene in the North. What gets you first is the music. There is high beat songs that is Sinhala, Tamil and English. The song Sumihiripanewill will ring in your ears – telling you not to hoard money but just realise that you will soon go to your permanent bed, the coffin, so be happy till then. There is a range of happy-go--lucky Sinhala songs. There are the zappy Tamil pop songs as well as the occasional Hindu spiritual melody. When asked if the two brothers understand Sinhala and how they chose such wonderful songs – both for their humourous lyrics and de-stressing tunes – the answer is that they ‘just listened and felt the vibe.’

“My brother and I do not understand Sinhala. However we love Sinhala songs. We select the songs we feel happy when we listen to them,’ explains Sayanthan who has worked in diverse jobs from labourer to bank clerk and mid-executive positions.

Of a sensitive nature although he projects a rational image, Sayanthan tears up when he narrates how much of a gamble it was to set this café up. 

“We sold the house. Life had become so challenging. I promised my parents that I would soon make a success of this, along with my brother, and we will buy them a better house. I told them we would set up within three years a chain of businesses. We will leave our legacy,’ he vows.  

Has any of the representatives from institutions such as chamber of commerce ever visited their café to ask what they need in terms of support? The answer is no. 

In separate discussions with seasoned businessmen, I asked if they know this café and several other youth led eateries and hang out spots. None of them do. We provided them the links of youth entrepreneurship write-ups featured in this page and we hope to share this as well to those dealing in investment promotion for the North. - (SV)

To be continued.