Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
losing their states after independence in 1947, most were too stunned
even to consider forming any kind of united front.
But another class of Indian was emerging with the new century,
one adapted to new realities and destined to be the seed of a new
society. Business gradually acted as the great equaliser: many
Westerners wanted to talk deals with men willing to take a healthy
cut in profits to secure their business, men with a natural genius for
trade. And through the common currency of money, genuine
friendships were made, along with generous profits.
Jamsetji Tata took advantage of this new attitude. He set out to
create a place where Indians and British could meet on neutral
ground. He was, after all, a businessman, too, and he'd seen money
overcome caste. In retrospect, this attitude seems all the more
remarkable in an age when businessmen did not consider running
hotels a profitable growth industry on the whole.
With absolute confidence in his vision, Tata scoured the capitals
of Europe, purchasing the best of everything, including professional
advice. The hotel he built would contain such state-of-the-art
facilities as its own laundry, an aerated water-bottling plant, a
crockery-washing plant, lifts, a Mora silver-burnishing machine,
and even electroplating services for its silverware. Few establishments
in Paris and London could boast such high-tech refinements at the
time.
The Taj was a labour of love for him. Built on a site directly in
front of the hotel that had refused him admittance in 1888, and
commandeering the latter's view across the Arabian Sea, it impressed
all who saw it with its classical sweep and grandeur. Indeed, the Taj
would compare to anything constructed by Sir Edwin Landseer
Lutyens himself in New Delhi when the British moved their
imperial capital there from Calcutta on Lord Curzon's initiative after
1911. The Taj's exquisite symphony in stone eclipsed even the
imperial architect's magnificent Secretariat. It was intended to fuse
the best of East and West, of everything the world had to offer.
Few Indians had seen anything like it before, and Tata made very
sure it would be the first sight any visiting dignitaries or viceroys
would see on the subcontinent as they disembarked from their
