26/11: The Taj stands strong for Mumbai

Mumbai: It was an image that the terrorists had meticulously calculated to grab the world's attention: the Taj's dome on fire smouldering against an unforgiving sky. The hotel's century-old heritage wing destroyed.  

But with Mumbai, the Taj has recovered. The charred dome has been restored.  Signature restaurants (Wasabi, Golden Dragon) and the Harbour Bar, splattered with blood during the attacks, are back in business. 

Many who work here say the renovation stands for the same defiant spirit with which Sir Jamshedji Tata initially set up the Taj in 1903 in retaliation against policies that forbade non-whites from luxury hotels.

After the attacks, Ratan Tata had promised, ''We can be hurt but not knocked down. The old Taj will stand again for the next 100 years, as it has for the past 100 years.''

The Taj had never closed before 26/11. Not even during World War II, when it was temporarily converted into a hospital.

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Last year's attacks saw 31 people killed within its gigantic corridors, 12 of them staff members. Among those killed were General Manager Karambir Kang's wife, Neeti, and his two sons, Uday and Samar. They were trapped in their apartment on the sixth floor of the Heritage Wing... that the terrorists set on fire.

Even confronted with that loss, Kang stood by his guests, working night and day to help commandos rescue them. He is still with the Taj. The rebuilding of the Taj, he says, is his work. "I don't think you know one can ever totally heal from such a tragedy. But I am giving my best and I am taking each day as it comes." 
 

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