| So says Ravi Kumar Ohri, the 60-year-old chairman and managing director of the food chain and hospitality group, Ohri, that launched Baseraa in the city in 1980. |
| A graduate of the Benaras Hindu University who did his civil engineering from Naseembaug Engineering College, Srinagar, Ohri originally started his entrepreneurship by setting up a construction company in Orissa. |
| How then did he transform into a hotelier? Frequent stays at Oberoi hotels on his visits to Kolkata made him dream of similar projects. |
| He shifted to Hyderabad in the late seventies after his marriage. Like any successful entrepreneur, he found the city's need for a good hotel and proceeded to work on his idea. |
| Thus was born the city's first three-star hotel in 1980 at his palatial house in Secunderabad which was earlier leased to Kamath hotels. |
| "My aim was to provide quality food and services to people who visited the city, and with that intention I opened Hotel Baseraa. The name Baseraa, which means nest in Hindi, was selected out of nearly 2,000 options," he says. |
| "The original cost of revamping the premises was around Rs 1.75 crore of which Rs 25 lakh was taken as loan from the Andhra Pradesh State Finance Corporation," Ohri said. |
| At the time of inception, Baseraa had 37 rooms, one multi-cuisine restaurant and one south Indian restaurant. Over the years, it has seen a lot of change and at present has 77 rooms. The south Indian restaurant was converted into a pub, Outswinger, in 1996. |
| "When the pub came up in 1996 the cricket world cup was being played, it was hence named Outswinger. It was the first theme pub in the city after prohibition was lifted," Ohri says. |
| Another speciality of the group was Havmor Ice Creams. |
| "The ice creams at Havmor are made at our factory. The recipe is what has been used in the family, which has not changed with time," Ohri says. "Even some of the spices used in the restaurant were originally made by my mother," he adds. |
| Ohri who always had a profound desire to offer something unique that breaks monotony for his customers is also behind Gufaa (cave) restaurant. The interiors are done in the manner of a true cave, adding ethnic aura to the surroundings. |
| The group for the financial year ended March 31, 2004 had a turnover of Rs 20 crore. It expects the turnover to clock a 25 per cent growth in the current fiscal. Ohri's has recently opened its eleventh restaurant in the city, 'Ohri's Far East'. |
| "We have offers to open Indian restaurants in Paris, Mauritius and Dubai. But before that we want to establish ourselves in places like New Delhi, Bangalore, Pune and Chennai," Ohri says. |
| He is now planning to renovate the multi-cuisine restaurant''Mehefil' at Baseraa. |
| "We will start the work during winter, as business is slightly low during this period and expect the renovation to be completed by June 2005. The new place will retain its old charm and would continue to conduct ghazals in the evenings," he says. |
| Age has not diminished his exuberance. He still plans the interiors of the new projects. |
| "I am handing over the day-to-day operations of the hotels to my son, Amar. He still discusses the new projects and plans with me and only then takes the final decision," Ohri says. |
| In his free time, he reads the latest trends in the hospitality industry and interior designing. |
| "The time that I spend with my five grandchildren is what I relish the most. We go to our farm in Shamshabad and have a blast. It is all play and no work there," he says. |
| "The most satisfying feeling for me is when I see the children of old customers coming to the place for a date as their parents used to do earlier," he says. |
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