A legend of the Glasgow curry scene has fondly recalled the day he was awarded an MBE by Queen Elizabeth II and how she paid tribute to his own late mother - 56 years after their first encounter.
Raj Bajwe, 59, met the monarch in July 2018 during a ceremony at Holyroodhouse Palace in Edinburgh. He was presented with the medal for his 45-year service to the hospitality industry and for his charity work, which has seen him raise around £7.6million over a period of 20 years.
Despite having cooked for megastars including Michael Jackson, Mel Gibson, Sean Connery and Billy Connolly, the former Café India manager said he was 'overwhelmed' to meet the Queen.The encounter with Her Majesty was especially poignant for Raj as he received the prestigious accolade in honour of his mother, Parsain, who sadly passed away in 2006 at the age of 74, which, astonishingly, the Queen acknowledged at the event.And remarkably, it wasn't the first time the Queen had been in the family's company, after she attended the Malindi Hospital in Kenya the week he was born - even walking past baby Raj and his mother as they recovered from his birth.The dad-of-two told the Record: "When I got the letter through from the cabinet office telling me I'd been nominated for an MBE, I couldn't stop crying.
It was quite a shock."In the form that you send back, I requested that the MBE be presented by the Queen herself if it was possible.
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