RC Jerusalem On The Taj
Our new sister Club RC Jerusalem remembered the Rotary Club of Bombay and our regular meeting place with a longer article in their monthly bulletin. The article is on nothing else but RCB’s regular Tuesday’s meeting place: The Taj Mahal Palace & Tower Hotel. Taj opened its doors on December 16, 1903. It is almost to the day 117 years ago that it first welcomed guests. Coincidence: President RC Jerusalem, Dieter Ziulkowski stayed at the Taj more than half a year during his three-year tenure in India.
1903: The Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel opens its doors to guests for the first time. The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel is a heritage, five-star, luxury hotel built in the Saracenic Revival style in the Colaba region of Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, situated next to the Gateway of India. Historically it was known as the “Taj Mahal Hotel” or simply “the Taj”. The hotel is named after the Taj Mahal, which is located in the city of Agra approximately 1,050 kilometres (650 mi) from Mumbai.
It has been considered one of the finest hotels in the East since the time of the British Raj. The hotel was one of the main sites targeted in the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Part of the Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, the hotel has 560 rooms and 44 suites and is considered the flagship property of the group; it employs 1,600 staff. The construction of the hotel was commissioned by Tata. Its doors opened to guests on December 16, 1903. An oft-repeated story concerning the reasoning behind the construction of the hotel was Jamsetji Tata’s refusal into the Watson’s Hotel due to it being reserved for Europeans.
Originally, the main entrance was on the other side where now the pool exists, and the ocean was at the back, although it is now always viewed and photographed from the ocean side. The original clientele were mainly the Europeans, the Maharajas and the social elites. Many world-renowned personalities from all fields have since stayed there, from Somerset Maugham and Duke Ellington to Lord Mountbatten and Bill Clinton. When it opened in 1903, the hotel was the first in India to have: electricity, American fans, German elevators, Turkish baths and English butlers. Later it also had the city’s first licensed bar, India’s first all-day restaurant, and India’s first discotheque.
Rtn. Christopher Bluemel participated at the RC Jerusalem’s regular Club meeting and conveyed best wishes to all members and briefly introduced RCB.