Salil Dutt, born 11th August 1949, lives in Jaipur with his wife Suman. Their son Ashish is a financial analyst and their daughter Anuradha, a Clinical Psychologist. Salil's father, Wing Commander Mayukha Kanti Dutt (1915-1998) was born at Sreepur, Kharandip, Chittagong. Salil's mother, Biva Dutt (1924-2003) was born and brought up in Rangoon. She too hailed from Sadarghat, Chittagong. Salil has four siblings. He graduated from St John's College Agra, and retired in 2009 as Vice President, Tata's Indian Hotels Co. Ltd. His interests are sports\; music, particularly Jazz, Classical and fusion\; reading, writing on travel &\; hospitality. He is a food buff.
Sitting under the winter morning sun in our terrace at Jaipur, overlooking the not too distant low-lying hills of the Aravalli range, I indulge myself in one of the most de-stressing activities that I had not done in a long time - shelling green peas. It is quite meditative, and I dare add, therapeutic. It effortlessly empties the accumulated clutter in the mind. During my childhood in Gurgaon in the 1950's and "Dilli" later, it was a favourite winter afternoon activity. Green peas were one of my favourite vegetables, tasty to the core. It made for some of the most popular Indian dishes anywhere - aloo mutter (peas and small potatoes), gobi mutter (cauliflower and green peas), and paneer mutter (cottage cheese cubes and peas), to name a few..
