The story goes that some time in the late 1800s, Mumbai’s visionary entrepreneur-industrialist, Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, on being refused entry to a local ‘Europeans only’ hotel (some versions identify it as Pyrke’s Apollo Hotel, others claim it was the Watson’s), swore to build a hotel that would not only be open to Indians but would also rival the grandest hotels in the world.

The location he picked was a stretch of reclaimed land at Apollo Bunder, facing the glittering blue sea. Everything about the hotel was on an unprecedented scale of lavishness; yet good sense and pragmatism too were evident in its planning. The foundations of the building, for instance, were dug in unusually deep at 40 feet. They supported a magnificent structure showcasing a mix of Moorish, Oriental and Florentine styles. The structure was topped by a large central dome, linked to smaller domes by long, high aisles which allowed the Arabian sea breeze to freely circulate and cool the building.

Jamsetji Tata apparently made purchases himself on his trips abroad, buying, among other things, a soda and ice-making plant, washing machines, a laundry, lifts and an electric generator. Visiting Paris, possibly at the time of the inauguration of the Eiffel Tower in 1889, and seeing pillars of spun iron for the first time, he ordered ten to be shipped home to hold up the vast ballroom, the proposed piece de resistance of the new hotel.

The interior was a work of fantasy. The building was set back to give guests the sensory experience of being at sea. Rooms were connected by marble corridors and here and there were vaulted alabaster ceilings, onyx columns, graceful archways, and a dramatic cantilever staircase. In later years, a rumour would grow and pass into city folklore, about the placement of the entrance. According to the story, the Italian architect who had designed the Taj realised that it was mistakenly built back to front and committed suicide. R.M. Lala, chronicler of the House of Tatas, however, discounts the rumour, clarifying that the entrance at the back was meant to face the Wellington Mews from where the horse carriages would arrive.

In 1903, the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel opened and was the first building in Bombay to be lit by electricity. It opened with 17 guests and soon attracted the international elite.

W. Somerset Maugham was a celebrated guest, actor Gregory Peck called it a ‘jewelled crown’. But as Tata had perhaps hoped, the hotel also became an integral part of the city, setting the trends for the fashionable elite in dancing, dining and music. Naresh Fernandes, an authority on Mumbai’s jazz musicians, for instance, maintains that the jazz scene only took off in the mid-30s when the Taj Mahal Hotel in Bombay hired its first resident jazz outfit, a nine-piece band led by a violinist from Minnesota named Leon Abbey.

The Taj Mahal Hotel continued to be a focal point in Mumbai’s socio-cultural life through successive decades adding on features such as the exclusive business club, Chambers and a discotheque with the uncharacteristically shortsighted name, ‘1900s’. It was the place for fine dining with options that ranged from Tanjore to Sichuan and included more casual spaces such as the Sea Lounge which offered a calming view of the harbour and the 24-hour coffee shop, the Shamiana.

Having built the hotel of his dreams, Jamsetji Tata in a characteristic gesture of largesse had declared that the profits would go to charity which was the case till the 1970s, when the Indian Hotels Company, which was privately owned by the Tatas, went public. Around the same time, a new wing, the Taj Intercontinental, was also added to the hotel. The addition-that Mumbai historian Gillian Tindal describes as a ‘Moorish skyscraper’ was somewhat controversial, both for its looks and for the rumour that the hotel preferred to house its less genteel customers there.

The seventies were a time of change in Mumbai. Competition to the Taj came up in the form of newer hotels such as the Oberoi Sheraton. Hotels also came up in the suburbs, particularly in the Juhu area, which was a popular haunt for film stars. The city was expanding and along with South Mumbai, the Taj too began to lose its primacy. A controversial documentary in the mid-eighties poked fun at the pretentiousness of its patrons, including a socialite who suggested airily that the Taj was akin to a private club.

Since then, the hotel has attempted to regain its hip edge through various means including a revamped coffee shop and lobby with a mural by M.F. Hussain and super-specialty restaurants such as the Zodiac Grill and the more recent addition Wasabi, with mixed success. Mumbai today is a global city with space for many, not just a few, luxury hotels. But the Taj is not and has never been just a hotel.

It is the pride of the city, temporary home to visitors ranging from world leaders to rock stars (a casual list of the hotel’s guests over the years would include Louis Armstrong, Mick Jagger, Madonna, Brad Pitt, Bill Clinton, Jacqueline Onassis, Margaret Thatcher, George Bernard Shaw and Prince Charles). For the middle class, it represents aspiration. Mahesh Bhatt in a recent television interview described it as an idea of ‘paradise’. For the poor it is a spectacle; crowds of people often collect near the porch on evenings when stars are expected. And even for those who disapprove of the disparity of wealth, it is a symbol of everything they oppose.

Terrorists are known to choose targets for their symbolic value. In attacking the Taj, they attacked a symbol of history, tradition, beauty, grace and self-respect.

The Oberoi Hotel

Unlike Jamsetji Tata, who was born in a family of Parsi priests and evinced an early love of English literature, M.S. Oberoi was the son of a Peshawari clerk who had to leave a plague-infested village around 1920 to seek his fortunes as a billing clerk at Simla’s Hotel Cecil. The difference in backgrounds and in the times they lived in is reflected in the hotels they were to establish in Mumbai.

The Oberoi Sheraton that came up in Mumbai in 1973 did not have the dignified elegance of the Taj. Indeed, with 550 rooms, spread over 30-plus floors (Oberoi claimed it was the tallest building in India at the time), a more modern construction and aimed, it was said, at the booming traffic from the Gulf, the Oberoi Sheraton was perceived as the brash challenger to the Taj.

Its location, at the seafront edge of the business district, gave it a more contemporary feel and apart from attracting guests it soon became a popular venue for conferences, for local executives and the young. The hotel’s nightclub, The Cellars, was a popular hangout for socialites, as was the coffee shop. Oberoi claimed also that his hotel was the first to employ women on a large scale in the hospitality sector.

In time, The Oberoi Sheraton added a more exclusive wing, The Oberoi, which soon became extremely popular with corporate travellers (former guests include Bill Gates, Vladimir Putin and Jack Welch). Simple and classy, with 350 rooms arranged around an atrium, the hotel also had an exclusive floor for women travellers, personalised butler service and a modern executive centre.

Both the Oberoi Sheraton, now known as the Trident, and The Oberoi were familiar meeting points for the business community and for fashionable diners; the hotels housed some of the city’s finest restaurants and watering holes: Indiana Jones, Tiffin, Frangipani. It is also one of the best recognised and much beloved buildings on the famous Mumbai skyline.