Mumbai’s Trident & Taj: Guests Are Back

Although Mumbai’s (or Bombay’s) 550-room luxury Trident Hotel (photo above) did not put up its usual festive Christmas tree this year, its loyal clients are returning. Much of the credit for this goes to Rattan Keswani, president of Trident Hotels in India, and his team for turning the bloody war zone into a normal hotel again…that too within three weeks of the dastardly terrorist attack.

Gentle, soft spoken but thoroughly efficient Keswani, whom I have known for a few years, spoke to me from Mumbai on the phone today: “Yes, it is Christmas and festive season. But keeping in mind the last month’s happenings, our celebrations are low key. But our restaurants are prepared to greet and cater to those who wish to celebrate Christmas and New Year.”

“Business at the newly-reopened Trident hotel( owned by EIH Ltd., part of India’s Oberoi Group) and the (over 100-year-old) Taj hotel is steadily picking up,” reports The Hindu.

“The iconic Taj Hotel, which threw open its tower wing yesterday, has comparatively more occupants with nearly half of its rooms booked.”

An earlier Bloomberg report says:”Paul A. Folmsbee, U.S. consul general, attended the reopening of the Trident Hotel with his wife Jaunita, who wore a salwar kameez, a traditional Indian dress.

” ‘We are here to encourage normalcy’,” he said in the (Trident) hotel’s coffee shop. ‘Once we came to know it was a terror attack we got in touch with all Americans in Mumbai and after the siege realized six Americans had lost their lives’.

“A steady flow of cars and guests endured traffic jams, gun emplacements and security checks last night as Mumbai’s Taj and Trident hotels reopened less than a month after terrorists killed guests and employees.

“Diplomats, religious leaders and victims of the attacks attended prayers and services to remember those who died. Others came out of curiosity or to dine at the reopened restaurants, which were booked out for the whole evening. For some, including an Aeroflot flight crew that checked in at the Trident, it was simply business as usual.

“Guests walked past a sandbagged bunker of soldiers to have their bags screened near the steps of the hotel, before passing though a metal detector to enter the lobby.” More here…

Meanwhile, a month after terror attack, Jews light lamp of hope, says a report from New Delhi…More here…