Born in the wake of the 1898 plague, the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai has stood a silent witness to history for over a hundred years.
Its towering 240-feet-high dome has seen countless tales of resilience, symbolising the indomitable spirit of the city — the bubonic plague, birth of a free nation at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the turn of the century, and the nightmare of what is now called “26/11” — when the city and the hotel were held hostage by 10 gunmen.
Myriad stories find their way into the pages of the history of this iconic hotel, captured in a coffee-table book The Taj at Apollo Bunder, by historians Charles Allen and Sharada Dwivedi. Late on Friday evening though, the hotel's dome looked down on a select gathering at the Taj hotel's open-air terrace, where Mr Ratan Tata, Chairman of the Tata Group, unveiled the book, along with Mr R.K. Krishna Kumar, Director Tata Sons, and Mr Raymond Bickson, Managing Director and Chief Executive, Indian Hotels Company Ltd.
SELFLESS SPIRIT
“The Taj, despite its majestic being, could never be what it has turned out to be without that spirit, without the selfless spirit, embodied in the staff and the management.
“They stood by, at great risk to themselves and in some cases at the cost of their lives, to protect the people who were here.
“And that became the symbol of the strength of Mumbai, the strength of the city. Those who witnessed the carnage of 26/11 were also witness to the spirit of the Taj and its people. That we did get mauled but did not fall,” Mr Tata told the audience.
While excerpts of the book were read out by different personalities, including author William Dalrymple, film actress Juhi Chawla recounted how her mother had worked with the Taj for 20 years, and how she too aspired to work in the hotel some day!
International film-maker Shekhar Kapur recollected how he had come to the hotel with his uncle, the evergreen romantic and actor — the late Dev Anand.
The Taj hotel also hosted “the biggest party” after Kapur's international filmElizabeth, and his Bombay Dreams film party — made musically memorable as well, with A. R. Rahman and Andrew Lloyd Webber jamming on the piano for more than an hour, he said.
The “inadvertent” mistake that resulted in the back of the hotel being the sea-facing view, and other such anecdotes, were read out. One such story is that, when Jamshetji Nusserwanji Tata decided to build the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel on a 10,000-square-yard piece of land in 1893, his sisters objected.
“You are building an institute of science in Bangalore, a great iron and steel factory and a hydro-electric project — and now you tell us you are going to put up a bhatarkhana (eating house)!,” one of them said!
But the Taj Mahal Palace did open its doors on December 16, 1903.
On its first day, it hosted 17 guests, at Rs 20 for a normal room and Rs 30 for rooms with additional comforts, like fans and attached bathrooms.
The hotel went on to host Maharajas, freedom-fighters and international celebrities, including Gregory Peck and the Beatles.
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