Nirvana Weddings

In 1982, Anila Keswani, a CPA, and her late husband Har G. Keswani, a naval architect, opened their first restaurant, Taj Mahal, in Metairie. Their trip to Europe that year inspired their venture into the restaurant business. After having been surprised with the number of Indian restaurants in the cities they visited, including one named Taj Mahal in Vienna, they knew they had to bring the flavors of their homeland to New Orleans. They opened Taj Mahal with a chef recruited from India, and they went from there. Anila Says, "Not that either of us knew what we were doing, but food had become our passion, so we worked very hard to make it a success." They later opened Keswani's Indian Cuisine (1985-1989) in Uptown Square and Shalimar Indian Cuisine (1994-2000) in the French Quarter. After her husband's passing in 1997, Anila and her son Anjay took over Taj Mahal and opened Nirvana Indian Cuisine in 1999 on Magazine St. Both Taj Mahal and Nirvana have private rooms available for parties. The planning of these events as well as the off site catering led Anila to her new passion, planning weddings. She coordinates every aspect, the food, flowers, and music to the wedding attire. Anila says, "Most Indian weddings are week-long events. I enjoy getting to know the families and doing everything I can to make every weddings special for the bride and groom. I put a lot of pressure on myself to make everything perfect."