Jagdish Ghelani was born in Uganda, Africa where he did his Primary and Secondary education. His parents decided to send him to UK in 1972 to join his brother who was already in Leicester and was studying at Loughborough Tech College where he studied too. His parents also came and settled with us in Leicester.
In 1980, he married his wife Daksha in India. He started his own business which was not very successful, so he joined a company called Combined Insurance, Company of America. He was selling insurance to various parts of the country and mainly to the farmers and village people. It was a grand success in its own little way and a great experience where he achieved a fair few company awards in Sales.
He heard of a Pub called The Fosseway and spoke to the Manager of the Brewery, who told him that there were already 16 bidders ahead of him, however he still gave Jagdish the opportunity to submit a business plan which he did. His business plan was to start a Vegetarian Restaurant which Jagdish started on 19th October 1999 after a lot of confrontation with the Brewery, who were not agreeing to his proposal for the pure Vegetarian Restaurant. He is not looking back as his whole family is with him now and it has given him an excellent base to work from.
1 Which place, or city or country do you most feel at home in?
Leicester
2 What are your proudest achievements?
Being qualified in Business Studies and purchase of the property at 432 Melton Road, Leicester.
3 What inspires you?
My wonderful family and great friends around me.
4 What has been biggest obstacle in your career?
Business with India
5 Who has been the biggest influence on your career to date?
Nitinbhai Thakker
6 What is the best aspect about your current role?
Being a Chef and able to meet a lot of people at my Restaurant. I bought the property free hold from the brewery in 2004 and have been running a successful Pure Vegetarian Licenced Restaurant since then.
7 And the worst?
Loosing good old staff in the Kitchen which is a nature of this business.
8 What are your long term goals?
Build a Hotel at Indigo and retire at 70. I have just applied for the planning permission to build a hotel for which we are awaiting approval and have plans to build a Hotel, a Function room with a running Restaurant and if all goes well, I propose to build and start the hotel on 30th August 2021.
9 If you were Prime Minister, what one aspect would you change?
Change the Law to allow the qualified staff to come from abroad.
10 If you were marooned on a desert island, which historical figure would you like to spend your time with and why.
Pandurang Shastri, who has been a great inspiration to me in my life.
