Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
access by horse-drawn carriages driven down from Wellington
Mews. When the new section of the Taj was added sixty-nine years
later, the hotel's owners moved the entrance to the seafront, in a
concession to changing one-way street systems and convention.
The once splendid view lost much of its splendour, however,
when the Indian Ministry of Defence, after scrutinising thousands
of miles of coastline and available harbours, decided that the best
spot to construct a naval dockyard was right in front of the Hotel.
A glance through newspaper archives revealed interesting tidbits
about the initial mixture and gradual metamorphosis of attitudes
toward the upstart hotel. In the early years, many incidents that
could damage the hotel's reputation were reported, no matter how
trivial. On March 1, 1904, for example, the
Times of India
, under the
headline THEFT IN A HOTEL, revealed that one Keshav Moti
had been charged with stealing eight sovereigns from a hotel guest.
The article also implied that the police, not the hotel management,
ultimately solved the crime:
Mr. Elias Schwartz, assistant manager of the hotel, stated that a
fortnight ago a visitor complained to him about the loss of a
purse with 8 sovereigns. An inquiry was made at the hotel, but no
trace could be found of the missing property. Further evidence
showed that the accused went to a Marwari's shop on 25th
February . . . and tendered a sovereign for change. The Marwari
became suspicious and handed [him] over to the police. Six
sovereigns and some silk goods were recovered from the accused's
box. [He] was sentenced to . . . 3 months' rigorous imprisonment.
There are many similar reports around this time; yet one sees
indications of a gradual change in status in other ways, too. On May
28 of the same year, the
Times
announced:
After noon on Sunday, the 29th current, the Apollo Bunder Post
& Telegraph Office will be removed to the Taj Mahal Hotel,
next to Kemp & Co. on the Apollo Bunder.
