The Taj - A Labour Of Love...

Despite having lived in Mumbai for 10 years, I hadn't visited her. Despite having adored this beauty for so long, I had never experienced her. 

I am talking about the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. The first time I saw the beautiful structure was way back in the early 1980s when the UK edition of the Illustrated Weekly carried a feature on the best hotels of the world. The Taj was featured in it. I was absolutely smitten and awestruck. 

My Dad told that this beautiful structure was in Mumbai, or Bombay as it was known then... and I wanted to see it myself, with my two little eyes...

The first I laid my eyes on it was in 2003, when I visited Mumbai for work. But I didn't get the chance to visit it. After moving to Mumbai in 2004, I saw the Taj many times but it was only last week that I got chance to visit this amazing place, a structure symbolic of my city, Mumbai, and India as well, a symbol of our fight against terror.

We drove into the Taj to attend a function early last Saturday.... After the function was over, we took a round of the property...

The jharokas are reminiscent of a Rajasthani haveli....

While the architecture is in typical 19th century European style, the interior was distinctly Indian....

Such a regal structure....

Anyone would fall in love with these sights

Surely those men who attacked the Taj were madmen and they deserved the end they finally met...

Wonderful jaali-work in the lobby...

The grand staircase...

The dome from the grand staircase...

The bust of Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata..

Legend has it that he decided to build the hotel after he was refused entry to one of the city's grand hotels of the time, Watson's Hotel, as it was restricted to "whites only"....

As fate would have it, Watson's decayed over time and is a dilapidated structure, but the Taj still stands strong after a century...

The very look and feel of the property shouts out loud that it is a labour of love.... you can sense it, you can feel it...

And the way the Tatas restored the property after the 26/11 attacks speaks of that love and that steely resolve to give us the best....

We dropped by at the Sea Lounge for a cup of tea...

A lovely view of the Gateway of India made the experience very exciting...

The Sea Lounge was replete with old world charm...

The waiters seemed to be oldtimers here.... and made us feel as though we were at home...

This kind of hospitality is a rarity these days... in hotels that pride calling themselves modern and contemporary...

The oldtimers' hospitality at the Taj would embarrass their younger counterparts in the newer hotels with the superiority of their service....

Larry entertained us with his lovely renditions of classics on the piano...

And finally my tea came - I had the Monkey King Jasmine Tea that had come from afar, China...

Complimentary coconut cookies came alongwith the tea - these reminded me of my Mom's legendary baking skills....

After splurging on a rather expensive tea (I wasn't complaining, as the hospitality more than made up for the damages), we took a walk on the Apollo Bunder....

This was the scene of a bloody massacre on 26/11... people jumping out of these windows... smoke belching out... firemen rushing to save whatever they could...

Hope we never see that here, or anywhere else in India...

But it is indeed a feat how the Tatas restored the property after the Pakis screwed up the place...

We walked around the promenade enjoying the views... Indeed the Taj heritage wing is an imposing structure, but the adjoining high-rise wing is no less impressive...

Indeed, whoever has seen the Taj will forever remember the Bombay of yesteryears, the Mumbai of today and terror we faced on 26/11.... Indeed the Taj has been, is and will be a labour of love...., a love that's timeless...

Terror in Bombay -- A few unanswered questions.....

Twenty - twenty five years back as a kid, I recall flipping through The Illustrated Weekly, which carried photo feature on the best hotels of the world. The Taj Mahal was there. Papa who saw me flipping through the photo feature described the grandeur of the place to me, as I listened in wonder....

Today the Taj is in shambles. God knows whats happening inside the Oberoi and the Trident. All this is a sad testimony to the lackadaisical attitude of our authorities.
Bombay, a city that has fascinated me for its speed, attitude and iconic structures, is bleeding for the last 45 odd hours....

Are we so ignorant that we didn't know that this could have happened? The incident has opened a Pandora's box of questions that must be answered for the benefit of Indian citizens.

1. 
   
   Why weren't the Taj and the Oberoi-Trident complexes not stormed on Wednesday night / Thursday morning? Why did we wait for 8-9 hours despite the army, navy and NSG being called in? Why are we so soft on terror?


2. 
   
   Quoting a comment on Facebook on these terror attacks, that no matter how much pesticide you use, you surely get a few cockroaches. The key is to brutally and swiftly eliminate these cockroaches. Why are we so slow and casual? We have constantly been attacked, almost an attack a month, for quite long now. Was the government sleeping, all this while?


3. 
   
   I came across an interesting insight on Facebook today which said that India is the only democracy where the top three posts - Prime Minister, Home Minister and President are nominated by a person who herself does not have any mandate from the people! And at least one of these three people are surely ignorant and insensitive to the terror we are seeing, let alone taking any action. Mr. Home Minister has said that we need to show compassion to those involved and these arms and RDX laden guys are brothers gone astray. How stupid and insensitive. How long can we let someone have power without any accountability of any kind? Is there something murky over there?


4. 
   
   Security analysts have for the last 5 years have been talking of a marine threat. What have we done to boost our marine defence and patrol systems?


5. 
   
   What a slap it was on the face of the state government that it took Narendra Modi's visit to the Trident and Oberoi this morning to get Mr. Deshmukh out of his slumber. Where was Mr. Vilas Rao Deshmukh all this while?


6. 
   
   What has India done to curb Islamic militancy in our hinterlands? How long can we ignore this real and genuine threat in the name of secularism?


7. 
   
   As evidenced from the nuclear deal, India now has a strong lobby (both with US megacorps and the administration) in the US. Why can't we leverage on our new found strong relationship with the US and the rest of the Western world to pressurise the Pakistanis to curb terror?


8. 
   
   Why do we want to trade with Pakistan when we know they will stab us? Why did we support the financially bankrupt state of Pakistan in getting support from the IMF?


9. 
   
   Why can't we coerce Pakistan into clamping down on terror by strangling Pakistan economically - disrupt the shipping lines into the Karachi and Gwadar ports?


10. 
    
    Why can't we learn from the Israeli swiftness and brutality in dealing with such matters? Why can't we join hands with them in dealing with Islamic fundamentalists? If not all that, can't we get Israelis to train our commandos and state police forces to deal with these situations? How long can we be so sensitive to a certain vote-bank that we don't co-operate with Israel on these matters?


11. 
    
    Why don't we have a disaster management plan? How can we allow three top cops to travel together, thereby multiplying the risk of losing them all - this is precisely what happened when we lost the top three ATS cops on Wednesday night. Losing three ATS cops on the same night is strange. Is there more than what meets the eye or is it a mere coincidence?


12. 
    
    Last but not the least, I got an interesting text message this morning which went as follows: "The Navy commandos are headed by a Sikh. The Army operatives are headed by a Haryana Jat. NSG has been called in from Delhi. Taj and Oberoi staffers who heroically tried to save guests are mainly Punjabis. Where are Raj's Marathi Manoos?" Relevant I think - if he loves the city so much, if he loves his people so much, where is he? Why haven't we heard from him so far? Why aren't party workers assisting in relief efforts? When I sent this message across to most people on my cell's address book, I got an angry response from one of my contacts saying "we should not talk of all this and we should stand as one today". Surely we have been standing as one and that's why there has been a co-ordinated approach. But my question still remains - where are Raj and his Manoos gangs now? Why don't they help the authorities in hunting out the sleeper cells, instead of targeting North Indians?

Can the readers help me with some answers on these random questions on the terror of the last 45 odd hours?

As we wonder about these questions, we need to resolve to flush out and eliminate these cockroaches. We need to remember that our Motherland, India, is indeed incredible and we'ld better keep it that way. Jan Gana Mana....