“New Lucky Restaurant” may seem like the most inappropriate name for an over 50-year old restaurant in Ahmedabad (Gujarat) that is built in a cemetery. In fact, it’s probably the most appropriate.
Built over a centuries-old Muslim graveyard, the locals who go there consider eating there lucky, and the manager believes that their business rocks thanks to the presence of the dead that has led the once mere tea-stall to expand into a full-fledged restaurant.
Although every religion in India takes care of dead bodies differently (Hindus cremate, Muslims/Christians bury, Zoroastrians leave the body to be eaten by vultures), the whole concept of death is different because of the general belief of being reborn — the ‘your soul never dies’ analogy.
The dead and the their souls that become spirits are given a lot of importance in the subcontinent. They are listened to and respected under the pretext of them being “holy”, so to speak.
Digressing from the restaurant a bit, but here are a few examples of how spirits are interacted with in India: there are groups of people who go to common suicide spots and perform rituals to give the spirits looming around there salvation; they believe that unsatisfied souls are what encourage suicides. Also, my grand-mum used to leave a bowl of milk outside every full-moon night because she believed that my late grand-dad would come for it. It was never there in the morning and you dare not tell her that maybe the neighbor’s cat sapped it all up.
So, with that insight into an Indian belief, you can see how having a romantic candle-lit dinner at New Lucky Restaurant is anything but spooky.