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| Mumbai’s Taj: A legacy of defiance | | | Lakshman Menon
Over two decades before the Gateway to India was built to commemorate the visit to India of King George and Queen Mary in 1928, Bombay already had a majestic landmark, the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. Built on the waterfront in a lavish combination of Saracen, Gothic and Florentine styles, the Taj with its distinctive onion domes and pointed arches, at once symbolised the grandeur of Imperial India and the vibrancy, inventiveness and resurgent pride of India itself. For the Taj was the vision of Indian industrialist Jamsetji Tata, and he built this sprawling, opulent hotel in a spirit of defiance when he was turned away from the then fashionable Bombay hotels because he was an Indian.
Showcasing vaulted alabaster ceilings, dramatic archways and onyx columns, the Taj that was built in 1903 at a staggering cost of a quarter of a million pounds, is a luxury hotel in the truest sense of the word. With hand-woven silk carpets, Belgian crystal chandeliers, an eclectic collection of furniture, and a spectacular cantilever stairway, the hotel incorporates a whole host of artistic styles and tastes.
"From maharajas and princes to various kings, Presidents, CEOs and entertainers, the Taj has played the perfect host," says the Taj’s website. The splendour of the Taj is often contrasted to the grinding poverty immediately outside it, but to most Indians it remains a source of fierce pride in Mumbai’s cosmopolitan spirit, of aspiration rather than of envy.
I have visited the Taj more times than I can count. As a child I remember the wonder of being taken to tea with my sister at the Sea Lounge, feasting on soft, chocolate-filled éclairs and wafer-thin chicken sandwiches while we gawped at the sweep of Mumbai Harbour outside. Years later, my partner and I often went to the Harbour Bar and drank very dry, ice-cold martinis while we watched the sun slowly sink in molten orange and gold, into the Arabian Sea. Of course, the Taj had changed in between; it had gone from being a fusty, tired old dowager to a sleek, thoroughbred filly; a symbol of Mumbai’s endless ability to constantly reinvigorate itself.
The Oberoi on the other hand has always been the Taj’s brash young cousin; more bling than gracious, more pop royal than aristocrat, but very much a fixture with the arriveste to whom the sheer scale of "its in your face" luxury has an intrinsic appeal. Aged 22 and in training in Mumbai for my first job, I remember swaggering into the bar to meet my colleagues and asking in my best world-weary voice for a Sidecar, then the fashionable cocktail. I was promptly carded by the barman who demanded to see evidence that I was over 18. Immediate collapse of my swagger and cue sniggers from my colleagues!
On our visits to Mumbai we always stay either at the Taj or at the Oberoi. They are our oasis in the complex, crowded, dirty and endlessly enchanting world outside. But often too, we visit the Leopold Café for morning coffee or afternoon beer. Open since 1871, noisy and smoky, the Leopold is an institution popular with foreign tourists trading India stories and Mumbai’s writers and artists. Here, as in so many other venues in Mumbai, the foreign tourist strikes up an acquaintance with local residents, artists mix with local hacks, indigent students banter on equal terms with the well-heeled (many outrageously well-heeled). The food at the Leopold may be indifferent but there is a buzz, a genuine exchange of ideas and an intellectual curiosity that is peculiarly typical of Mumbai.
We have been a few times to Chhattrapati Shivaji Terminus, far better known by its original name, Victoria Terminus Station, which handles thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands of passengers a day, each one pursuing a dream — of riches, perhaps, or of Bollywood fame, perhaps also just of regular employment or education. Completed in 1888 it, like the Taj Hotel, is a lavish blend of stunning stone domes, turrets and pointed arches. England has nothing to compare to VT; St. Pancras Station may possibly come a distant second best.
The Taj, the Oberoi, the Leopold, VT, each one so distinctive, each one an icon, together a collective symbol of Mumbai’s cosmopolitan character and enduring optimism. The terrorists (and let us be clear that they are terrorists, not militants or ultras or any other weasel description) who attacked these landmarks, chose their targets deliberately. They were successful in that they have certainly killed dozens of innocent people and have caused untold suffering to many more. But one thing is clear: They will not succeed in breaking the spirit of this magnificent city. Nor will they be able to make a dent in the grand and defiant onion domes. |
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