These are a few of my favourite things, writes Nina Pillai

As I reminisce my favourite things for the year, it becomes a collage of people, places, hotels, friends and soft cuddly animals. I feel everyone must experience the love and affection of a dog -- I have three, Norah, Gutri and Ninety - to understand the qualities of unconditional love, blind faith, trust, loyalty and companionship. Man or animal, these are qualities I value most and therefore are my favourites.
Between homes, I spent a glorious week at the Leela Palace Mumbai along with my younger son Shiva and had the most wonderful vacation in my city. The Leela Palace Hotels owned by the Nairs, my friends of over three decades, has become for me the finest hospitality chain in the country or perhaps even the world.

The first time I stayed at the Leela was in 1981. My late husband Rajan and I came in from Singapore en route to Baroda for my brother Bobby Nair's wedding to my sister-in-law Varsha. We wined and dined and slept, missed our wake-up call and hence the only early morning flight to Baroda. We ended up driving there. How the hotel has changed from then to now!

I have stayed at most of the Leela properties and every single experience has been memorable. Lakshmi and Vivek Nair are old friends who go to extraordinary lengths. They're kind, gentle and warm human beings. The hotels are in safe hands, they and the Leela Palace are some of my favourites for decades.Hotels and airlines need the patronage of a loyal public. Now that Kingfisher Airlines has stopped operating, I miss it - a great product ahead of its time. My friend from before my marriage, Vijay Mallya got it spot-on as a product,as a person he has the most wonderful qualities equalled with a sharp intellect but the support of the public was sporadic and his competitors werenasty, which saw the airline's tragic demise.

Parallels were constantly drawn with Sir Richard Branson and Virgin and though the late '80s saw Sir Richard go though a similar lack of financing (he had to put his house in Holland Park up for sale. I viewed it), he was able to turn the airline around by selling the Virgin record label and some other assets. Today, the group boasts of a truly great airline. I recently flew Virgin and loved the experience because the staff truly care.

I love my home state Kerala, Delhi and Mumbai but feel like a citizen of the world as I have lived in all the great capitals of the world through my various avatars. I have travelled on private jets, stayed in four-bedroom suites at The Dochester in London, flown the globe many times, but now I have fun, experiment and play by my own rules. This column would not be complete without toasting my favourite gentleman of the year, that accolade goes to our Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has taken our democracy by storm, galvanising state after state on his speeches alone into voting for the BJP all in seven months Wow!

My favourite lady of the year has to be Nita Ambani. She is the quintessential Indian beauty, married to Mukesh Ambani. She is a proud mother, wife and homemaker (running the most expensive house in the world, Antilla) with clockwork precision. My vote for her is more for the vast responsibilities she has undertaken outside her home. She dons her various hats with élan and is hands on in all her ventures... truly inspirational!

Finally, I salute my older son Krishna, who is more like Rajan with every passing day, in his thirties he has the wisdom of the ages and as Dr Karan Singh once told me the only person holding him back (like Swami Vivekanada's mother) from being totally spiritual, was his mother - me! He puts in long hours at our family fine arts company Triveda and brings his father's vision and acumen to the enterprise. A great year ahead to one and all. Life is short, enjoy it to the fullest as my favourite people do!!!