'jamavar' at leela kempinski

my young niece from chennai is in mumbai on official work and stays at the company guest house at vileparle. as her 'mama', i have a role to perform. to see that she is at home in an alien city.she is very smart and surely does not need any help but i keep in touch with her so that she knows that there is someone she can turn to if required.she visited us twice,the second time with her handsome fiance.and both of them endeared themselves to all of us.

last week, i had some official work in the western suburbs and i had a high tea meeting with a customer from overseas. i realised that my niece was not staying very far off from the hotel and asked her whether she would like to join me for dinner.though she is a busy person and works quite late into the night, she readily agreed. i decided to take her to a restaurant that would be an unforgettable experience for both of us. i chose the 'jamavar' at leela near the international airport.

it was a very enjoyable evening.when i asked the steward the meaning of jamavar,he explained that it is a very special type of shawl made in kashmir.made entirely by hand it took many years to complete and hence it is very exclusive and pricey.the patterns on the shawl are done with such exquisiteness and craft that the front of the shawl cannot be distinguished from the back.taking a cue from this ancient art,leela chose to name their speciality restaurants as 'jamavar'.in every leela hotel you will surely find a 'jamavar'.

we ordered mullagatanny soup and tomato shorba with basil and panner tikka as starters.both the soups were excellent. the tikka just melted in the mouth like kebabs. the hyderabadi mirchi ka salan was delectable when we ate it with the crunchy naans and the finale was 'sliced alphonso mangoes with vanilla icecream'. the bespoke silver cutlery gave us a royal feeling. the food was excellent,the ambience great,the service though a tad slow was very warm. we just didn't know how time flew as we kept chatting all the time.it is always educative to get a young person's perspective on many subjects. which is what i did. my niece enjoyed the dinner and so did i. but i was richer with what i learnt from the younger generation.