How to kick back in Kandahar

To relax over a game of snooker and a soda, Afghans head to the Kandahar Coffee Shop.

from the March 21, 2007 edition

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For Mirwais Quraishi, it is almost a second home. Asked how often he comes here, he pauses. "How many times each day?" he responds.

The answer is three times, for two to three hours on each occasion, he says, leaning up against a railing, looking like a magazine model in his leather jacket. "It's a good place to meet friends and refresh," he says. "There's nothing else in the city."

It is unique – a slice of Western chic amid the Kandahar clamor of horse-drawn carts and burqa-clad women. For that reason, Naseem once considered putting up a metal detector at the front door. But in the end, he talked to townspeople and decided that would send precisely the wrong message.

"That would only set the cafe apart," says Naseem. "When people come I tell them, 'This is your business.' "

So it seems. At this point, the passion for snooker here outweighs the skill on display, with the white cue ball seeming to find the pockets as often as any of the red balls. But to those here, this is already a cherished part of Kandahar.

"All day, people are busy and they need a place to relax," says Habibi, a local bank manager who, like many Afghans, has only one name.

Looking quite at leisure himself, wearing a pinstriped suit jacket over his traditional Afghan tunic and pants, he adds, "People come here with a low profile – it's just a great place where people are being calm."

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