On The Road Taj Hotel

On The Road

Extraordinary As Usual. Mumbai’s Taj Hotel, which re-opened a year ago, is resolutely busier than ever.

By Peter Grunert, executive summary by Darmansjah

One year since Mubai’s Taj Mahal Palace and Tower fully reopened, and two and a half since the terrorist attacks that set this famed hotel ablaze, all 560 of tis rooms are booked out. Demand has never been so high – this monument to a city’s ambitions has become a focus for discreet defiance.

At 5pm each day, a tour takes guest through highlights of the Palace Wing’s restoration; one that set our to reintroduce much of the grandeur for which the Taj became known when it first opened in 1903. it was remarkable for being the first hotel in India with electricity, and offered such luxuries as hot water, itw won laundry and machines for creating ice. It went on to become the first hotel in Mumbai to be equipped with a lift, and the first in India with an air-conditioned dining room.

‘Here, maharajas would have been entertained. Jus imagine the clothes the diners would have worn,’ says today’s guide, Nikhila Palat. She points to a small watercolour from the 1930s that inspired the renovation of the dinning room. In keeping with the opulence of thos times, many thousands of sheets of gold leaf again adron the steel pillars, lit by vast chandeliers created by galss blowers from Delhi.

Our tour takes in the Rajput suite, for which crafstmen were brought from Udaipur in Rajasthan to restror the ornate inlaid marble flooring. John Lennon and Yoko Ono once locked themselves away in these rooms for five days, asking not tobe disturbed.

We also pass through the Presidential Suite: an inerconecting maze of rooms including a boardroom, gym and spa, served by a team ob butlers – 13 members of the Taj’s total staff of 1,700. Russia’s Dimitry the USA’s Barack Obama have all visited this suite in the year since  the reopening. ‘No photos, please,’ says Nihila. ‘We like to maintain an air of nystery.’

Behind the loby, a sculpture of a tree of life, recovered from the hotel’s wreckage, froms part of a memorial to thos who lost their lives here. Nearby, the guestbook lies open at Obama’s message: ‘Thank you for your extraordinary hospitality. Your staff is a symbol of graciousness and resilience.’

We head to the Harbour Bar to view a collection of paintings cleaned of the smoke damage left by the actions of the terrorsts. Over a drink, Nihila tells a tale recounted by survivors of the attacks – one of service to the last. In the Sea Lounge, above where we sit, a door was barricaded as chaos reigned outside. The guests hid beneath tables until one emerged to look for the bar’s finest bottle of champagne. He went to pour it into tubmlers when the barman leapt up, saying: ‘I cannot allow you to do that! ‘Not even at a time like this? Asked the guest. ‘Sir,’ said the barman. ‘allow me to fetch the correct glasses.’ Tajhotel.com