A requiem for grandeur & luxury

The Taj Mahal hotel, known for its super luxurious interiors with vaulted alabaster ceilings, beautiful archways and the dramatic cantilever stairways, now stands completely shattered by blood-stained floors, soot- marred ceilings, burnt windows and of course the stench of bodies strewn across it.

What greets you as go you near the lobby are broken glass panes, gun-toting commandos looking at you menacingly for closing in rather than the regular smiling bell boys who were quick to welcome you with a greeting.

���The interior is completely destroyed. It smells awful as bodies have been lying there since the day everything began. The terrorists had shot at many of the lights, making many parts of the hotel difficult to move in after evening,��� said an NSG commando who had taken part in the operation to flush out terrorists responsible for the bloodiest siege situation in the country.

The ballroom, which hosted innumerable number of wedding receptions, books��� release, product launches and parties, stands burnt completely with bullet marks which are still visible and water flooding the floors, as pointed out by a Mumbai Fire Brigade personnel.

The much-sought after restaurants, patronised by the who���s who from the country���s corporate world to film industry and the political class, are now haunted by an eerie silence, waiting to tell the horrific story of what actually happened inside for 60 hours. According to a few of the ambulance boys, who were rushed inside the hotel at regular intervals to bring out the injured security personnel and bodies of terrorists, ���most of the guests whose bodies are still lying inside seem to have been killed while having their food.���

Tata was personally involved in the construction of the hotel which before the Gateway of India was built, offered the first view of the city to ships sailing into the harbour.

It is said that he himself went to order the electrical equipment from Dusseldorf and chandeliers from Berlin. The hotel also had an in-house soda bottling plant, an electric laundry, fans from the USA and the first spun-steel pillars from the Paris Exhibition, which even after hundred years later, hold the ceiling of the Banquet Hall.