This story was published as part of Outlook's 1 November, 2024 magazine issue titled 'Bittersweet Symphony'. To read more stories from the issue, click here
When terror piggybacked on the dark of the night on 26/11 and breached the gates of Mumbai’s Taj Mahal Palace, the iconic hotel’s vaunted spirit of hospitality took on an edge of steel. It transformed into a shield of bravery.
The hotel’s staffers prefer to call this rare component of hospitality, ‘Tajness’, in order to sum up the exceptional culture of service at the Taj Group, that percolates from the topmost echelons of managers and supervisors to the wait staff, receptionists, bellhops … even the doorman at the front gate of the more than a century-old legacy hotel.
And yet, nothing could have prepared them for what transpired on the night of November 26, 2008. Armed with nothing more than sheer bravado and the steely spirit of ‘Tajness’, the employees put themselves in the line of fire to save the lives of the guests, when four heavily armed Pakistani terrorists went on a rampage at the hotel premises for nearly 68 hours, killing 31 people.
“The response during 26/11 was the staff’s way of owning and taking charge to make sure that guests are safe,” says Mallika Jagad, former manager at the Taj Mahal Hotel.
Jagad, then 24, was the banquet manager on the hotel’s second floor, in charge of a dinner party hosted by a top corporate house. After hearing the gunshots, she acted quickly, locking doors, switching off the lights, urging the guests to silence their phones and hide under the table, out of sight of the intruders.
“There was no emergency training given to staff. We were trained and empowered to do whatever we could, to ensure that our guests leave the hotel delighted,” she says, adding that the staff did whatever they could under the circumstances. None of the employees even thought of running away to save their own lives, as they were too preoccupied trying to find a solution to the crisis, she stresses.
Delhi-based Ankur Chawla, a fresh-out-of-college management trainee, with just three months of work experience, was on duty at the hotel’s celebrated Harbour Bar, overlooking the Arabian Sea, which on that fateful night the terrorists had sailed over for their mission.
“The Taj’s response was a dignified response to terrorism. Despite the destruction and chaos, the Taj reopened its doors within one month. the message was clear.”
When he first heard the gunshots and the sounds grew louder, he and his colleagues saw people running in panic, some with splotches of red on their clothes. The sight of the bloodstains made it clear to him that the sounds did not emanate from bursting firecrackers. He quickly rushed to evacuate guests from the Bar, as well as the Golden Dragon and Wasabi restaurants, and the Banquet Hall, guiding them to a safe area.
“With the attack progressing rapidly, we took the guests to a chamber on the first floor and hid them (there). A few of us ran to the pantry to bring sandwiches, water and towel linen for the guests and ensured they stayed calm and composed as many were crying,” recalls Chawla. “We were all amateurs in handling this kind of situation. But we all did whatever the best we could for the guests in that situation.”
Armed with AK47s, the terrorists ran amok, hurling grenades and firing indiscriminately in the hotel premises. By midnight, the iconic central dome had been bombed and heavy flames mingled with thick clouds of smoke rising into the sky.
After escorting guests to safety, Chawla along with four other colleagues hid in the linen room, under piles of discarded uniforms. They were rescued at dawn by commandos as columns of personnel from the Indian Army, Mumbai Police and firemen encircled the Taj’s outer periphery. Other staffers were busy evacuating guests in batches.
Chawla saw his senior manager escorting guests to the rear area, putting them in a bus waiting near Taj Wellington Mews, a cluster of luxury service apartments, and then coming back for another batch of guests. “That moment was an eye-opener for me. If my manager was going out, staking his life and coming back to retrieve more guests, it showed a great sense of responsibility that he and other employees of the Taj have,” he says.
Chawla’s excruciating 14 hours inside the besieged Taj ended on a happy note, but his chef friend and ten other colleagues were killed by the terrorists as they valiantly tried hiding and rescuing around 1200-1500 guests who were present at the hotel when terror struck.
Watching the siege unfold outside was Karambir Kang, the hotel’s general manager, who rushed in from his duty at Taj’s Bandra property, only to learn that his wife and kids had died in the carnage.
The recently deceased Ratan Tata, the then chairman of the Tata Group, stood beside him, even as the terrorists, holed up inside, continued their wild rampage.
Tata’s presence reassured his brave and courageous employees, many of whom stayed back at the site, putting in a shift of their lives. Tata famously vowed to re-open the hotel, which he described as an ‘old lady’ and restore it to its full grandeur, even as he is believed to have financially helped families of the slain employees.
The selfless response by the Taj Mahal Hotel staff eventually became a case study for the Harvard Business Review, which described employee commitment and customer centricity among the key factors behind their selfless response during the terror attack: “The extraordinary customer centricity helped, in a moment of crisis, to turn its employees into a band of ordinary heroes.”
The Hotel reopened within a month after the mindless devastation, while the restoration and renovation of the heritage parts took another two years. At the emotional grand reopening ceremony, the spotlight shone on its employees, who walked the ramp to cheers from the guests.
“The Taj’s response was a dignified response to terrorism. Despite the destruction and chaos, the Taj reopened its doors within one month; the message was clear—as a brand —as a nation—we stand united and we will not be intimidated by terror,” Jagad said.
Both Chawla and Jagad emphasised that although they are officially no longer employees at the Taj, a part of the institution remains close with them.
“True hospitality is in Taj’s DNA. For anyone who has worked here, hospitality becomes a way of life,” says Chawla, exhibiting shades of the ‘Tajness’ that may have taken root inside him.
(This appeared in the print as 'Wah, Taj')
