There was plenty of time for meditative reflection on the road to Bilaspur. Delayed but plentiful monsoon rains had caused a monstrous traffic snarl on a fairly long stretch of the 130km highway from Raipur’s Swami Vive­kananda Airport, the nearest airfield. And compounding the chaos, the sense of road indiscipline latent in Indian highway rid­ers had come bursting forth to the surface like post-monsoonal paddy shoots in this rice-growing area. While chauffeur Pawan struggled valiantly and with infi­nite patience, I gave myself over to chew­ing the cud of this puzzle that had been teasing me about the hotel I was headed for: Courtyard by Marriott in Bilaspur. Or, as it had come to be caricatured in my mind, the Marriott in the middle of nowhere. Why, I wondered, oh why?

 

Chhattisgarh is, of course, associated in the popular imagination with Maoist mayhem, owing largely to the periodic bursts of headline-grabbing attacks on security forces in Dantewada in the southern part of this mineral-rich state. And although Bilaspur is fairly up north, and well-insulated from these incidents, nothing that I had known of the town earlier had argued an eloquent case for an international four-star property brand.

 

But popular misconceptions about Bilaspur abound. Some of this is owed to its lack of nomenclatural distinctive­ness: there are at least four different cities and towns called Bilaspur in northern India. Checking into the hotel, I was told by amused front-office staff that just that morning, they had had a most unusual call from a guest who had made a booking and had arrived in ‘Bilaspur’, but couldn’t find his way to the hotel, so could they please help.


Turned out that the guest had arrived in Bilaspur in Himachal Pradesh.


In that sense, this Marriott property, which opened in March this year, has had to begin somewhat uniquely by putting Bilaspur on the map.

 

Entering the hotel, however, remedies all such geographical disorientations: the arresting Bastar-style tribal artwork in the lobby emphatically reminds you that you are in Chhattisgarh. That artistic reinforcement is made elsewhere as well: design elements — in the rooms and in the public spaces — fuse local ethnic influ­ences with modern chic, circumscribed of course by the international aesthetic standards that all Courtyard properties abide by, anywhere in the world.

 

The 100-room property, which has manifestly become the town’s hospital­ity hub, positions itself as a business hotel, Bilaspur’s first (and so far only) four-star international brand accommodation. And given the town’s centrality to the coal mining, heavy machinery, power and pharmaceu­tical sectors and the ancillary industries that these have spun off, the guest profile is fairly international. Yet it also enjoys the patronage of local Chhattisgarhi folks, who drive up in swank cars — from Mercs to Jaguars — that point to other­wise understated affluence.

 

Guest rooms at this Courtyard prop­erty are an expansive 345 sq ft; the suites, which are being readied, will be between 620 sq ft and 810 sq ft. All rooms come accoutered with those elements of com­fort—from 12-inch mattresses to silky-soft pillows to imported aromatherapy prod­ucts — that define Courtyard hospitality.

 

It was nearly midnight when I arrived, owing in large part to the traffic snarl, but at my request, the kitchen staff rustled up a divine mutton biryani, whose capacity to gratify was multiplied several times over by the anticipation of the pleasure. As befits a business hotel that pampers guests accustomed to international standards of hospitality, the food offering here is remarkable for the range and the heightened sense of gastronomic indulgence.

There’s only one restaurant in-house — the all-day multi-cuisine MoMo café —  although there’s also the grab-and-go MoMo 2 Go counter in the lobby; but even on that small canvas, executive chef Abhijit Mukherjee and his gifted team unfailingly painted flamboyant works of culinary art that set my taste­ buds quivering. Mukherjee counts a wholesome Pizzoccheri della Valtellina (whole-wheat pasta, cabbage and potato in a Parmesan cheese and sage sauce) and a zesty Fettucine Verdi Bolognese (fresh spinach pasta with marinara meat sauce in the traditional style from Bologna) among his signature dishes. And yet the range of Asian and other Continental fare (besides the Indian, of course) is just as extraordinary — although my efforts to coax forth a local Bilaspuri delicacy to taste were met with polite demurral on the grounds that there was no such thing!

 

And the desserts, oh the desserts! Jagannath Mahapatra, the master halwai chef, may well be the hotel’s secret weapon: he can spin a web of desserts so sweet, you’ll find yourself praying to be ensnared in it. Mahapatra learnt the halwai’s art on Kolkata’s streets and perfected it during a seven-year stint at Haldiram’s. The range of his signature desserts — sandesh, rasogulla, kheer kadam, rasmalai and kaju katli — may seem traditional, but he infuses them with an endearingly homey essence.

 

Courtyard by Marriott, Bilaspur, also has five banquet halls, accounting for some 14,500 sq ft of meeting space, used for everything from marriages to MICE events to, well, kitty parties. The vastness of that space is a concession to Bilaspuri cultural compulsions: given that virtually everyone knows everyone else in this compact town, protocol dictates that virtually the entire Who’s Who of Bilaspur must perforce be invited to every marriage and public event.

 

For all its positioning as a business hotel, Courtyard by Marriott, Bilaspur, will likely serve leisure travellers too rather well, as I learnt from my expeditions to nearby Amarkantak (the source of the Narmada), Ratanpur (site of one of the 52 Shakti­peeths) and the Achanakmar Wildlife Sanctuary. Kanha too is within a 200km ra­dius, as are other places of tourist interest. That in itself is a revelation, both in respect of Bilaspur and of this property. This was clearly no ‘hotel in the middle of nowhere’, but one that’s slap-bang in the middle of an affluent industrial powerhouse that’s also within motorable distance of some fasci­nating heritage and wildlife trails. In fact, so enthused by its Bilaspur venture is the Marriott brand that it has plans for at least two more extra-metropolitan properties —  a Marriott and a Renaissance — in Raipur.

 

Why not, I wondered with the wisdom of hindsight, why ever not.

 

 

The information

Location Citymall 36, Mangla Chowk, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh; 8km from Bilaspur railway station; 130km from Raipur airport
Accommodation 100 rooms (70 Deluxe, 30 Superior); six suites coming up in a month
Tariff  Rs 6,500 (Deluxe), Rs 7,500 (Supe­rior), taxes extra. Monsoon offer starting Rs 4,999 plus taxes until September 30; details on website
Contact +91-7752-432222, courtyardbilaspur.co