Sajjid & Laveena Mitha

One is an educationist, the other a plastic and petrochemical analyst. Together, they are just lovebirds, in wanderlust!

Interviewed & Photographed by: Farzana Contractor
Location: Aer, Four Seasons Mumbai

You’ve been married 21 years, are you aware?
SM: Really, no! Feels like it was only yesterday, but really life has been very good to us. She is my soulmate. She completes the person I am.
LM: Yes, time has just flown, very happily, touch wood.
SM: But you have to add five years and go back to 1991 for that’s when we met and fell in love. That makes it 26 years of loving and cherishing Laveena.
 
That’s nice, I love eternal lovers. Where and how did you meet?
LM: In a PR class at St. Xaviers, there was absolutely no reason for me to do that course, yet I was there… something had made me go enroll!
SM: Me too. I was just drawn to going to the XIC. It was the universe sending us both a message to be there. I walk in and see her sitting there, so gorgeous, so attractive, have to confess it was instant love, first due to looks.
LM: And when he wanted to date, my thought was, ‘yeah, why not, he seems like a nice guy…’
 
Of course he is a nice guy, he told your mum something about cooking, way before you got married, what?
LM: Ya, he said to her, ‘don’t bother teaching Laveena to cook, she does not have to waste time doing that’!
SM: Hmm, I told her there are cooks in the world who do a great job! Besides my ma (Razia Mitha) loves to cook and spoils us silly. Paya, biryani, dal gosht, she is always sending stuff over.
 
You both are foodies, what is the one food experience that stands out as the most outstanding, describe the meal?
SM: Has to be Padre Eligio’s La Frateria in Cetona in Tuscany, Italy. The restaurant is set in a restored prison in a monastery built by St. Francis of Assisi. It is steeped in mystic charm transporting the diner back to ancient medieval times. Chef Tripodi created magic. Moist and delicious pigeon, wrapped in butter paper with an earth shell around it, Rabbit Paté with pine nuts served on a bed of bright red juicy plums, Pecorino and Black Truffle Soufflé, they tasted as exotic as they sounded but in truth, it is hard to describe in words what our palates that evening were treated to. Even repeated attempts to photograph the dishes with my iPhone failed to do justice to the dishes the chef had so skillfully crafted for us. The tenderness of the meats, the symphony of the sauces, the perfection of the presentation and above all the taste of every delicious bite we experienced that evening completed a sequence of a dream which we never imagined possible.
 
Sajjid, you are this serious genius offering petrochemical intelligence to the global industry players, how come Travel Mango. Where do you find the time to travel, write a blog?
I have always loved travelling. Now I have combined it with writing and that gives me immense pleasure.The joy of travelling, seeing new places now has a different meaning to it.

Laveena, you have your own activity- based, encyclopedic classes for kids, G.K. Genius, 150 kids attending every day, how do you make time?
Well, we have to travel only when classes are closed for holidays, which means we plan our breaks during summer, Christmas, Diwali, Easter and long weekends.
 
What’s a holiday like?
SM: Typically we keep five to six weeks for holidays. They are the best. We will start with a cruise, drive through parts of Europe, which we both love to do. We may return to Bombay for two or three days and take off again to some island in Thailand.
LM: We have friends in Germany with who we drive in Europe. Wonderful couple, we met them in the Maldives many years ago.
SM: Who were not married then, but we got them to, in ’97!
 
Maldives, you go there very often, like you do Thailand.
SM: Yes, we love the beach. And the awesome seafood on offer at the various resorts. Soneva Jani blows our mind away.
LM: The last time we were there, watching a movie by the sea, where the movie screen stands in the water, who should walk into our private party for two? Will Smith!
 
Wow! And…
SM: And we were so thrilled, more than happy with our celebrity intruder. Shot pictures on our phones!
 
You were celebrating an occasion. I believe you, Sajjid, love surprising your wife on her birthdays.
LM: Let me answer. He is most amazing with what all he can do to make my day special. From the time I turned 21, when we were at a cosy private banquet room, dancing cheek to cheek, when at midnight a trolley with a cake with sparklers and Mini and Mickey Mouse sitting atop was pushed into the room by two men holding swords and they cut open the cake to reveal a diamond bracelet! Gosh! And there have been many such.
SM: I do love doing all this for Laveena. We’ve had many memorable birthdays. Once, in Chiang Mai, at Four Seasons where I had the golf buggy totally decorated with pink orchids, which took us past the poolside lit with only pink candles, to a smaller lower pool which had floating flowers and diyas in it, where we ate dinner, where at midnight we set out lit lamps, into the black sky, making a wish…
 
Sounds like fairytale stuff. And now that Sajjid is going to turn 50 in February, what has the wife planned for him?
LM: Gosh, I really don’t know. But I have to do something for all the 26 years that he has been celebrating mine, so uniquely!!