In the line of fire
The revival of Mumbai's Taj Mahal Palace hotel after a 2008 terrorist attack left it in flames is testament to the integrity of both the building and its remarkable staff, writes Amrit Dhillon. Pictures by Atul Loke
When terrorists struck the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai in November 2008, the siege lasted for 60 hours. Battles raged in the rooms and corridors and hundreds were taken hostage, some stripped and bound.
By the end, 31 people lay dead.
The assault on the grand old edifice was one of 11 co-ordinated attacks in the city, in which 166 people were killed and 308 wounded.
Other targets included The Oberoi hotel, India’s busiest train terminus and the Leopold Cafe, a hangout popular with backpackers.
In the Sea Lounge of the Taj, with its stupendous vista over the Arabian Sea, only one piece of furniture was untouched by the devastation: the Lucky Sofa, a perch famed among generations of Indians in Mumbai for its role in match-matching. When two families meet for the first time to arrange a marriage – often over profiteroles from the hotel’s bakery – it is customary to assemble at the Taj and make a beeline for the Lucky Sofa.
“If it’s occupied, they wait. They refuse to sit anywhere else because their parents’ marriage was arranged on that sofa and their grandparents’ marriage,” says Taj executive chef Hemant Oberoi.