THE Hotel Taj Residency at Aurangabad, which is nine kilometres away from the airport and eight from the railway station, is spread out among five acres of landscaped gardens like a palace in white.

Aurangabad, despite its rich Mughal past, does not really have palaces as do other cities in India that have been influenced by Mughal architecture. So, the Taj Residency is worth looking at even if you do not intend staying there. Go by daytime and walk around its gardens to the poolside from where the hotel offers itself admirably for view. Then walk back and decide whether you want to have a drink at the Residency Bar, coffee by the Garden Cafe, or a Maharashtrian thali lunch at the Residency Restaurant.

By description the Taj Residency at Aurangabad is a business hotel, though it has all the amenities of a luxury property, but without the latter�s costly mark-ups. And because it is constructed on the grounds of the Maulana Azad Educational Trust�s Institute of Hotel Management (IHM), the five-star Taj Residency serves as an ancillary to the hotel school.

Meaning, though the hotel is managed by the Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, it is operated primarily through the students of the IHM under the supervision of professional Taj executives. Smartly attired young interns from the IHM will greet you at the reception, speedily check you in, and then escort you to your room with the suave professionalism of seasoned hoteliers and you would not know they are trainee students.

Ashok Vasudevan, an old Taj hand and the hotel�s general manager, describes the IHM next door as an institute with a difference: it transforms young students into successful hoteliers by blending theoretical instructions with on-the-job practical training at his Hotel Taj Residency. The students are put through the grind here. As a part of their course, they work in all areas of the hotel, and they cover every shift.

The hotel is small, actually, by Taj standards but is comfortable enough for Aurangabad. It has 40 rooms including two suites but, according to Vasudevan, an expansion plan under consideration will give the hotel 26 more rooms by December. The rooms are elegantly appointed, they are centrally air-conditioned, and have international direct dial facility. Channel music, colour television with satellite programmes, a 24-hour room service, are some of the other regular facilities. But what is especially nice about this property is that each room has a private verandah that overlooks the spacious lawns. The suites are tastefully done, they too have attached balconies on which are fixed large and comfortable swings. The suites also have a biggish private terrace on which small parties can be held.

The hotel�s other facilities include a fully-equipped 24-hour business centre with internet connection and secretarial services. It has a banquet room called the Pavilion that can take in from 30 to 130 people for private conferences and parties, the poolside lawns can accommodate from 50 to 200 for cocktails and dinners. The hotel also has a Royal Palm Lawn that can take in from 200 to 1,000 persons for large wedding receptions and parties. And the Terraced Dome, yes, an exclusive area, fits in 15 to 20 for really privileged dinners. Also in the expansion plan is a blueprint for another banquet hall.

What else? Yes, there is a swimming pool of course, large and right before the vastness of the hotel, and a fitness centre, travel desk, car rental service, gift shop, currency exchange facility, safe deposit lockers, doctor-on-call, tennis and volleyball courts, and if you are inclined to make it, tours can also be organised to Ellora, Ajanta and Paithan. Vasudevan says that during season, which is from October to March, this happens frequently. The hotel gets international and domestic tourists who come to see Aurangabad�s architectural wonders.

Now the food! The Taj Residency has three F&B outlets in the Residency Restaurant, Bar and the Garden Cafe, but the wise thing to do would be to inform the hotel management when you are in for lunch so that it can prepare at notice a sumptuous and delightful Maharashtrian thali of the food that is available in Aurangabad. Satish Jayaram, the IHM�s vice-principal and a hotelier with adventurous, gourmet tastebuds, says: While the cuisine in Maharashtra can broadly be divided into Konkani (along the Konkan coast with a typical influence of the use of local ingredients such as coconut, cashewfruit, kokum, seafood, rice and rice/wheat derivatives); Dakhni (from the Deccan/Dakshin �the incredible satvic cuisine of the Punheri brahmins and the Nizami influence of the erstwile rulers and their people who beautifully blended the use of typical South Indian ingredients such as curry leaves, tamarind and coconut into their celebrated culinary practices); Kolhapuri (from the typical Maratha warrior bastion whose pandhra and tamada rassas have made waves for their direct and definite impact on the senses); and Vidarbha (with a subtle influence of typical Mahara-shtrian food married to central Indian culinary traditions), the Marathwada culinary practices are unique and cradled by all these factors.

Marathwada cuisine brings the best of all these diverse worlds together � from the Deccan and Khandesh (towards Jalgaon and Dhule). The availability of staple, easily used ingredients and some derivatives such as the Vadis (dried rice/lentil nuggets), vegetables of the season � Vangi (brinjals) � appear on most menus while the other lentils from the region make their presence felt in the Jhunkas and Pitlas. The use of groundnut with garlic, chillies and khobra are seen in the creation of the chutney, thechas and pastes/gravies (where the onion rules). The mutton and fowl are celebrated for their tenderness and taste (locally, the Gavran Chicken though fibrous as compared to the broiler is a hot favourite for its robust taste). The accompanying bread is Jwarichi or Bajrichi Bhakar, Chapatis and variations such as Dhapatya are well known while the winner in this category is undoubtedly the Thalipeet which is made from a combination of various grains and partaken with butter. The Biryanis are a gift from the Deccan. The Naan Khalia, also a hot favourite, is the undisputed brand ambassador for Aurangabad and is a must have to leave a lasting impression.