House on a hill

It combines wellness and beauty. Jamshed and Ayesha Madon have opened two bedrooms (individual suites) in Capella, their lovely home on a green hill in Parra, Bardez, Goa, as exclusive homestay for the discerning traveller. "This is a slice of Goa that has been spared development... At Capella, you’re ensconced in the lively quiet of the forests, safe from the wheeze and crash of construction. Named after a constellation, Capella is also the original name of the small chapel at the entrance to the property, a chapel that Jamshed and Ayesha maintain, and to which residents from the village of Parra come for sunset prayers,”' writes More, February 2009, the leisure and lifestyle supplement of Business Today. Capella is among the magazine’s choices for the Best Weekend Breaks listed as a great escape from madding metro crowds!

Capella currently offers guests two choices — a 450 sq ft Forest Suite, with the forest on one side and a good chance of seeing peacocks preening in the foliage outside the windows and a Field View Room which overlooks the front garden. "Capella is the perfect choice for nature lovers. The gardens are filled with an abundance of sweet-scented frangipani and Indian jasmine, interspersed with bamboo, gulmohor, mango, jackfruit and jambul trees... Apart from nattily dressed black and white magpie robins and frowzy groups of babblers, you will see sunbirds, scarlet minivets, golden orioles, golden-backed woodpeckers and bulbuls without stirring from the shade of your verandah,” the couple describe all things bright and beautiful on their website www.capellagoa.com

Their eight-year-old son Zal has for company their two dogs Luca and Skipper as well as friendly felines Lily-the-Calico-Cat and Smoky. "It goes without saying our pets are very much a part of our family and we hope guests who choose to stay at Capella will be comfortable having them around,” they write. A large living room, library and bar are open to guests.

Jamshed, says Ayesha, has been in love with Goa from as far back as he can remember. After four years as a merchant marine, he decided to give it all up and came back to India in 1994 with the idea of starting something in Goa. Ayesha had been in publishing for many years, first with a publishing house, then a newspaper and then with Sanctuary magazine. "In 1995 we found this beautiful old house in Candolim and set up our first Italian restaurant called J&A’s Ristorante Italiano with handmade menu cards and an awesome choice of four pastas, four pizzas and Walls icecream with chocolate sauce for dessert,” she states.

Fourteen years later, J&A’s is going strong and known to be among the best in the business in Goa. "We support the concept of ‘responsible tourism’ and must be the only restaurant that actually discourages the sale of mineral water in plastic bottles. Instead, our customers are served factory-packed mineral water by the glass, free of cost. We are the proud owners of a Reva (India’s only electric car which is non-polluting as it does not use petrol). This is our way of giving something back to this wonderful state that we call home,” Ayesha asserts.

Jamshed and Ayesha Madon (above) and Capella, their home in green Goa

Since restaurant work is mainly seasonal, the Madons spend the monsoons travelling within and outside India, trekking or bird watching with a close group of friends. For Jamshed, para gliding is the wind beneath his wings, he is a keen photographer and spends summer in the mountains, riding his bike and taking photographs. "His other passion is designing and fabricating bikes and vehicles like his big, yellow jeep,” Ayesha says.

For the lady, her day-to-day role involves staff training, sourcing of quality materials and menu planning. "Since I have no formal training in cooking, it would be pretentious to call myself a chef. Having said that, I remember the early days when my husband and I would often find ourselves peeling a mountain of prawns or stirring a huge pot of tomato concasse” when a cook did the vanishing trick, she chuckles. "We are blessed with a dedicated team of cooks who have been personally trained by me over 10 years. What I still insist on preparing myself are the meat and fish stocks. There’s something about getting a fragrant stock pot going that I find immensely satisfying,” the tastemaker describes.

In the early days, Jamshed would actually "drive to the docks in our little blue Maruti to buy the fish. Life is a lot easier today and I can say we are spoilt for choice! Almost everything, from imported cheeses and cured meats to exotic vegetables are delivered to our doorstep. Only the best of everything is our policy so it’s no surprise that our restaurant is among the more expensive eating places in Goa,” she relates.

As to why they took a call on Italian cuisine and not another was "because the Italian way of living and eating perfectly reflects our own personalities -- strong and basic! Our intention is to give customers good food prepared with style and integrity...Our food is invariably presented simply on large white plates with a minimum of ‘landscaping’ to give individual ingredients a chance to shine,” she describes J & A’s cut and craft.

An area where "she gives in to a bit of whimsy” is with the pastas. "By adding natural colors like spinach and beet to the basic pasta dough you can come up with an unending variety of colorful pasta. The pink papardelle and the green and white seafood lasagne are particularly pretty,” she declares.

At Capella, breakfast is complimentary; home-style meals are available at an additional charge. Other facilities include arranging airport transfers, bird watching trips, dolphin/backwater river cruises and heritage homes tours. "We are delighted at the number of good eating places opening up in Goa. Serious competition is healthy and raises standards all around,” Ayesha believes.