Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
12
'Europeans Are Coming to
My
Country Now'
THE TAJ MAHAL HOTEL, BOMBAY, 1903-1992
TAJ MAHAL PALACE HOTEL
INAUGURATION DECEMBER 1st.
The newest, largest and best appointed Hotel in the East. Over 400 rooms
and Suites of Apartments with Baths, W.C., luxuriously furnished with all
comforts. Large Dining Room, Bar and Smoking Room, all artistically
decorated; Electric Lifts, Electric Light and Fans throughout; Turkish Bath,
Livery Stables, Steam Laundry, Motor Boats and Motor Cars for excursions,
permanent Hotel Orchestra, European Management, European Staff,
Experienced French Chef at the head of the Kitchen Department. The
situation of the Hotel is unique, overlooking Apollo Bunder and Harbour.
Table d'Hote and Restaurant open to
Non-residents also.
ALTHOUGH EVERY COMFORT IS PROVIDED
THE CHARGES ARE VERY MODERATE
(From Rs. 6 upwards.)
- Advertisement in the
Times of India
, October 31,1903
Initially I assumed that the first place I ever slept in in India was left
over from imperial days, like the triumphal Gateway it faced -
Indian-owned now, of course, but essentially an inherited tradition,
absorbed like the famous Calcutta clubs. The next morning, I found
out how very wrong I was.
Great hotels exude some kind of charisma that sets them apart
from their competition. They participate in the lives of their cities
in a way that is unique.
When I first arrived at the Taj in 1974, I'd just witnessed the
heating-up of the appalling civil war in Lebanon. Soon it would
reduce the most beautiful city in the Middle East to a hell of feuding
factions, terrorist atrocities, and the slaughter of innocents that
