Girl behind the 'Corner'

There's nothing 'corner' about The Corner Courtyard in Kolkata; rather this 'Corner' has catapult to being a 'centre' of attention. That's because a good word travels miles, across oceans and continents. And we aren't too far way, in Mumbai. Global food connoisseurs in Kolkata and discerning travellers these days have been talking about a one-year-old gourmet restaurant and a boutique hotel within a revived mansion that's more than a century-old. And holding the fort is a 29-year-old first time entrepreneur and full-time dreamer Megha Agarwal. Their stories – the revival of a 110-year-old relic and the making of an entrepreneur who dreamed big - are stuff fit for textbooks on heritage and architecture and entrepreneurship respectively.

Birth of Megha's Corner
Around three years ago, Megha's uncle brought her attention to a colonial property he'd acquired. "It seems like yesterday when I walked into a haunted-looking place that actually gave me a warm vibe. It was grandeur masked in ruins. I remember my first vision of The Corner Courtyard (TCC); I knew it was to be a colonial era house with colours, laughter, food, culture and history," she shares.

Two years later, it is everything Megha first imagined it could be – an idyllic and romantic boutique hotel with an old world charm and a chic global gourmet restaurant where hand-crafted world cuisine made from fresh seasonal ingredients is served. But when the dream first came onto the drawing board, restoring this 19th century ancient Zamindar bungalow, for a very long time, seemed only fit for a dream.

On ground zero
A world cuisine restaurant and luxury guest rooms in an old abandoned house, and a battery that backs it, was the vision and the challenge. "There were a lot of times TCC did not seem possible," admits Megha.

Restoring a colonial era edifice dating back to 1904 posed countless challenges, like, "replacing 52 steel beams weighing almost two tonnes each and 400 feet of T angles on the ground floor with custom made T angles for structural stability. The team also worked on a 40 feet high pyramid for 360 degree sunlight into the courtyard for a real feel of an atrium," she reveals. They were often told that they were out of their minds. A few restoration architects and specialists gave up on the way. "I think that also enabled to filter a team mad enough to make it happen," feels Megha.

When post-restoration, the building was certified to have a residual life of 100 plus years, Megha felt vindicated.

The making of an entrepreneur
Though the Kolkata property is Megha's first foray into hospitality, it surely hasn't been her first attempt at entrepreneurship. As a kid, she's turned a spare room at home into a library for friends at a nominal fee, sold home food, and set up an activity centre where one could barter skills like teach playing the guitar for sketching lessons. "I loved trying out different ideas. I am restless, a dreamer and an insomniac," she says in one breathe. "Imagine containing that in a cubicle all day," says the MBA graduate, who quit her job as a consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers to explore what by then had become "a dangerous obsession," the world of hotels and restaurants.

After freelance stints with boutique hotels in the North East, she inched closer to a career in hospitality in 2011, securing admission at the Ritz-Carlton institute for hospitality. It was around the same time TCC was taking shape in her mind. "Both dreams were in the offing at once and I chose to school in hospitality at TCC," she says. "A complete lack of formal background coupled with a mammoth task of restoring a relic to first of its kind property here was the most application- based education I could have asked for," says the founder and CEO of TCC.

Worldwide view
It's said, the well-travelled are well-learned. In that case, Megha could well boast of a doctorate. After she quit her job at PwC, and before TCC happened, this self-confessed vagabond at heart spent a year globe-trotting. "Travelling is the first passion I knew and has been a source of motivation, including for TCC," she says. Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, China were a culturally rich experience, while she drew a sense of development and ambition from her days in Singapore and Hong Kong. It was in Europe and Italy where she says, "I understood what fresh local food really means and what passion for food is." Paris was a city that wished she could move to for its "eternal beauty and elegance". In fact, she says, "Every place I went to, I wanted to move in", and that included Barcelona, Belgium, Amsterdam, and the Caribbean.

Etched forever are many beautiful memories. "I had never seen so many shooting stars or variety of sea fauna. Traveling is worth so much for these moments in life that leave you breathless."

Back in India, during a short term assignment in Bangalore, she also explored the South and discovered many hidden treasures like home stays in coffee estates in Coorg to Tango workshops in Auroville.

On these journeys, Megha didn't just pick up souvenirs. "I picked up an endless stack of new ideas along with signed menus. I picked up confidence that comes from being alone in a new country and it's not much different from what one needs to have in a new business."

Strengths and inspirations
Tell her, hers is an inspiring story, and Megha insists that these words would be more befitting for those whose life stories influenced her. And they are no role models from the books or history. Her parents being first generation settlers in Kolkata, she's witnessed her dad set up business, and all the ups and down that came with it. "His unshaken confidence has always been inspiring," she says.

Then there's the facilitator of her dream project, her paternal uncle. "My uncle is a man of many interests and the most travelled person I know. He's been a significant influence, and validated my maddest ideas since I was a kid," she tells us. Another person who'd listen to her meandering mind was her younger brother. "He's the sober, smarter, sorted sibling." A recent graduate of Michigan Ann Arbor, he's already running his own start up in Michigan having developed a product in his apartment, beams the proud sister. "There's so much to learn from him."

Her biggest support system though is her mom. "She is the sweetest, kindest person I know." While growing up Megha watched her mother espouse caring for the elderly and education for special children. "She inspires by the way she lives," says Megha, who is also in the process of providing access to basic training and education to rural children and bringing together doctors who could treat curable blindness in those parts.

Gifts from TCC
"My biggest gain from TCC is a quality I lacked before, patience," confesses Megha. "It was sheer patience, and conviction in our original vision before it was adulterated with everyone else's opinions and reality of execution, which saw us through."

TCC also fulfilled her inclination and love to learn aspects of architecture and design, and introduced her to food styling. "I rediscovered myself in this process and got in touch with all these latent but strong interests, which would have otherwise perhaps been lost," feels Megha.

Up next...
"I can't say more TCCs exactly," smiles Megha. "Corner Courtyard is unique, grown organically from the history, character and structure it derives from its inheritance. When TCC travels as a brand in other parts of the country, it will adapt to its next destination in an organic way," she shares.

For the eternal traveller in her, next on the cards is skiing. "I love adventure sports and sunsets. I just checked off skydiving that ended with a sunset on the Pacific Coast. Now I want to learn skiing," says Megha, already drifting in the world of her dreams, this time perhaps on the Alps.