good cup of tea or coffee makes all the difference to the start of a busy day— It drives away that sleepy, lazy feeling and peps up your energy. Make sure by buying only NARASUS— it’s always good. The Indian Review, GA Natesan, 1942.

Alas! This damned thing has got hold of women! Two cups of coffee have become the order of the day. Stri Dharma quoted in In Those Days There Was No Coffee-Writings in Cultural History.

Pic 1 is taken from AR Venkatachalapathy’s book In Those Days There Was No Coffee which discusses the rise of coffee houses and coffee culture in South India in the early 20th century (more correctly kaapi which after much discussion became a bonafide Tamil loan word). The sleeveless blouse and strategically draped slinky sari of the woman in this Narasu’s ad suggests the 1930s. The header of the ad loosely translates as “Get Up, Drink Good Coffee”, presumably a glamorous thing to do for single ladies:-)

Pic 2 is from Narasus facebook page.  The company was started in 1926. Its hard to place the decade of the ad, though in my mind this is the 1940s  and not the modern girls of the 1930s:)