The founder · 1976
Late Sardar Kesar Singh Bindra
Posted in Kurseong with the Railways, he opened Amarjeet Restaurant near the Toy Train station in 1976. Hot samosas, gulab jamuns and Amarjeet ki Chai
soon won over locals and tourists alike.
01/—Story
From a third-floor dream
to a house of brands.
Jaz grew up in Kurseong, where his grandfather opened a restaurant by the Toy Train station in 1976. After hotel school and years with Marriott and Hilton in the UK, he came home to start Punjabi Kadhai in 2010 — and kept building.
Jaspal Bindra has 16 years of experience in the restaurant business. He studied hotel management at IIMT Kolkata and went on to work with Marriott and Hilton in the United Kingdom.
After his stint in the UK, he began his entrepreneurial journey with Punjabi Kadhai, a North Indian restaurant on Sevoke Road, Siliguri. Today he is the man behind a house of much-loved brands, from Cafe Kurseong Diaries and Baking Diaries in Kurseong to Cafe Karmaa Diaries and the Curious Gigglers preschool in Siliguri.
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1976
Roots · Kurseong
Amarjeet Restaurant
Late Sardar Kesar Singh Bindra, posted in Kurseong with the Railways, opens Amarjeet Restaurant near the Toy Train station. It grows into The Amarjeet Hotel & Bar.
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Study
Kolkata
Hotel Management, IIMT
Jaz trains in hotel management at IIMT Kolkata — the start of a life in hospitality.
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UK
United Kingdom
Marriott & Hilton
He works with Marriott and Hilton in the United Kingdom, learning international hospitality from the inside.
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2010
Sevoke Road · Siliguri
Punjabi Kadhai
Back from the UK, Jaz’s first restaurant begins as
a dream on the 3rd floor of a building on Sevoke Road
— wood-fired tandoors, home-churned butter, Ghar Wala Pyaar. -
2019
Homecoming · Kurseong
Cafe Kurseong Diaries
Back to his roots: a café in the family’s Amarjeet Hotel building — tables named after historic schools, Toy Train views, local flavours. Launch day: 8 December 2019.
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Bake
Hill Cart Road · Kurseong
Baking Diaries
If Kurseong gives India great tea, it can also give it beautiful bread, cookies, and cakes.
A hill-town bakery carrying the Amarjeet legacy forward. -
Pause
Sevoke Road · Siliguri
Karmaa Diaries
A mindfulness café — journals, affirmation tags and a phone “detox envelope” served with the coffee. It bills itself as India’s first mindful café.
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Play
Siliguri
Curious Gigglers
A play-based preschool co-founded with Divya Saluja Bindra — she is the concept creator, Jaz the strategist — to raise children who are
trauma-free, emotionally secure, and deeply seen
. -
Feast
Siliguri
Kesar Caterers
Wedding and event catering from the family behind Punjabi Kadhai.
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2026
6 February · Siliguri
TEDxInspiria
On stage at Inspiria Knowledge Campus with a talk that reads like a mantra:
If you don’t go within you, you go without you.
