In the mid-1990s, when Stuart Freedman first arrived in New Delhi, the city came as a big shock to him. As a British photojournalist in his late 20s, Freedman was fresh from assignments in Kabul and Pakistan, and, yet, the chaos of New Delhi was something else. "It blew me away," is how the London-based photojournalist puts it. In the moments when he felt like a stranger in the capital city, Freedman sought refuge at the Indian Coffee House at Connaught Circle. Here, he found home. Among the rings of coffee cup stains on tables and the easy conversations of regulars, Freedman found an echo of his own past, growing up in East London. "These were portals to a gentler time. The world slows down here and there is an opportunity to relax," he tells us over a Skype call.

A waiter serves schoolgirls beneath a portrait of Rabindranath Tagore in the Indian Coffee House, Kolkata, 2013. All photographs Stuart Freedman/Courtesy Tasveer