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How it
started:
The credit for
introducing Indian cuisine in the Baltic Region goes to Rajinder
Kumar Chaudhary, affectionately called "Raj" by friends and
colleagues. He retired from the Indian Air Force as wing commander
and settled down in this region in the early 90's. It was the dream
of his late wife Suwvarna (Sue) to open a chain of Indian
restaurants. To fulfill this dream, after Sue's tragic death, Raj
opened the first "Sue's Indian Raja" at Vilnius on the 9th April
1998. Another one bearing the same name was opened at Riga in
October 2000.
During the
next four years, in partnership with and the active support of Dr
Lina skutaite, (whom he married later) he opened six restaurants in
the Baltics - at Tallin, Parnu, Riga and Jurmala. Quite
appropriately, they were all named after "Sue" who had dreamt of
such a chain.
However, due
to pressure of work and some other problems, Raj and Lina had to
scale down their business. In Latvia where they had three
restaurants, the exclusive Thai restaurant - "Sue ka Thai" on
Aurcicl street in Riga was closed down in May 2003. The other two
Sues Indian Raja at Vecpilsetas (Old Riga) and Sue's Asia at Jurmala
(On Jomas street) were sold to Jatinder Grewal in January and April
2004 respectively.
Both the Restaurants have now been resold by Jatinder Grewar to
Nordic Partners (an offshore company) and SIA Sue's chain of
Restaurants in August 2005.
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