When gunfire drowned piped music

Alok Vajpeyi

I was in a group of eight who had gone to the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower to dine at the Chinese restaurant Golden Dragon. Around quarter to 10 p.m., we heard some gunshots, which over the next few minutes became intermittent and nearer to where we were seated. It was then that the hotel staff told us to get under the table while one of the staff closed the sliding doors to our secluded dining area.

After the noise of the gunfire receded, the door opened and the staff led us across the restaurant to The Chambers (a business lounge on the first floor of the new wing of the hotel), which was packed with 150-200 people. It was while on my way there that I happened to notice a dead body lying in the corridor and understood the full gravity of the situation. As it started to get cold, the staff took out sheets and distributed them among the guests and they also served some canapés and water.

I recall the situation was quite tense but mostly people stayed calm. I did speak with my wife, telling her not to panic and received SMSes from friends who probably thought I had made it out of the hotel in time as the messages read: “hope you are safe”. Through the hours in The Chambers we could hear explosions at times, gunshots far away and had a continuous stream of information through people talking to friends and families outside. There were irritants as we heard that some idiot was talking to a TV channel live and commenting on the fact that senior industrialists, foreigners etc., were in The Chambers.

Why didn’t he just invite the terrorists in? At around 3 a.m., the staff started getting people together for evacuation. It was first families, then the elderly and toddlers, and lastly adult males. As I was going out, and about to enter the corridor, I heard gunshots ahead. That created panic and mayhem and a near-stampede situation as people ahead of us rushed back to get in to The Chambers. I saw some people falling, perhaps from the push and shove—or from the shots. It was then that I took a decision not to go back to The Chambers. I preferred to be on my own and not in a panicked group.

So, while turning back, I noticed a side door, which was luckily unbolted and went through it. The door opened to a staircase, so I kept going down till I reached the lobby level. I switched off the cell phone. I saw two policemen outside the fire exit (which had a glass pane) in the space that connected The Chambers’ stairwell to the lobby. They motioned me through hand signals to wait there; eventually one of the two policemen outside opened the lobby door to let me out.

I was back at work on Friday—having reached home at 4 a.m., watching the news until around 9 and then sleeping till 1 p.m. on Thursday. It was only while watching the news when I got home that I really grasped the enormity of the situation. The incident has, however, changed my outlook towards life. The financial context to life that so overpowers our other sensibilities, as it had mine, is not so key now.

Gautam Adani

Gautam Adani had gone to The Taj for dinner at the “Masala Craft” with Mohammed Sharaf, CEO of DP World and Ganesh Raj, Managing Director of DP World India. DP World, an international marine terminal operator, is a business associate of the Adanis, and operates a container terminal at Mundra (in the Kutch district of Gujarat). Scarcely had Adani finished dinner and begun chatting over a cup of coffee, when he spied the terrorists firing away indiscriminately from just 15 feet away in the Taj lobby.

There were about 50 persons in the restaurant at 9:50 p.m. when the attack started; the restaurant lights were switched off immediately. Panicky diners were escorted to the kitchen. Adani spent the next two hours in the kitchen. By then his wife Priti called him from Ahmedabad, warning him that the news channels had just reported that Colaba causeway had been attacked. Adani gave her the true picture, and said that he was trapped in the Taj. Within minutes, Priti watched in horror the siege unfolding on her television screen.

Meantime, the hotel staff helped Adani and other guests sneak out of the kitchen to The Chambers through the service area in the basement. The Chambers is where Adani spent the next 10 hours, talking with family and friends over phone. In between, at 4 a.m., just as he was beginning to see a glimmer of hope, a grenade blast just outside the hotel lounge brought back the panic.

Describing two terrorists he saw as “very fair”, Adani says the situation began to turn around when the National Security Guard (NSG) moved in at 6:30 a.m. Adani was impressed by the professional way in which the NSG went about the task. The commandos organised safe exit of Adani and other guests—numbering around 150—from The Chambers by 8:30 a.m.

Adani left for Ahmedabad by noon and reached home by 1 p.m. On returning to Ahmedabad, he found the whole Adani extended family at his home, bleary-eyed after following the ordeal on television all night. Both wife Priti and son Jeet (11) didn’t leave his side and his elder son Karan (21), who is in the US, wanted to hear all about it over phone.

Bobby Parikh

I was having dinner with a few business associates at the Golden Dragon at the Taj. We first heard what sounded like gunshots around 9:30 p.m. The restaurant was full and I think everyone paused when they heard the sounds. We dismissed the sounds as some celebrations, and I suspect, so did others. However, when a second volley of shots went off, it became clear that these were gunshots and something was seriously wrong outside.

The restaurant manager asked everyone to get on the floor. I recollect that he was calm and firm. All guests sat or lay down on the floor, while the firing continued unabated for about 15 to 20 minutes. At that point, we were led by the staff to a side door through which we entered into the adjoining Harbour Bar. We climbed up a flight of stairs to the Wasabi from where we were led through an internal service passage to The Chambers. I was in The Chambers until around 4 a.m. when we were let out in batches. We went down a passage and a flight of stairs that led to a door which opened out to the street at the rear of the Taj. From there, we made our way to Regal Circle, and then home.

I must make a special mention of all the Taj personnel. They were completely outstanding—they took incredible care of the people, were on their feet through the night, and were always at hand to help people. I do not have adequate words to express gratitude and appreciation for what each and every one of them did that night. I was among perhaps 40 to 50 people that left The Chambers around 4 a.m. on Thursday morning. There were many more people who, I understand, were able to leave only several hours later.

As told to Anusha Subramanian