Tata Group chief Ratan Tata Thursday slammed the government for not learning from the past and failing to put in place a crisis infrastructure that could be activated immediately after terror attacks in the city.

"We had a bomb blast some years ago. We should have learnt to get a crisis infrastructure in place that could snap to attention as soon as something happens," he said outside Bombay House, headquarters of Tata companies.

"If we don’t have this, we will be subjected to great need of lack of protection for the citizen. People have been killed who are absolutely innocent," he said.

Tata, whose group property Taj Hotel was at the centre of terrorist attack, said that the "terrible wanton" attacks on innocent people and destruction of prominent landmarks in India deserve to be condemned.

"Guests who have been innocent have been killed. People have got killed in the hotel. People got killed on the road," Tata said.

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Of all the places that were witness to the attack, none is more important than the Taj Mahal Hotel. The Taj was built at the start of the 20th Century by Jamshedji Nusserwanji Tata the founder of the Tata Empire. He built this hotel when he saw a sign outside the then famous Monginis restaurant that announced "Dogs and Indians Not Allowed Inside Hotel".

That spurred him to build the grandest biggest hotel in India and at that time the world. The Taj, standing on the shoreline of Bombay, would be the first sight that people would see as they sailed into Bombay Harbor. Steamships would dock in Bombay and the tourists would come to the land and dine and wine at the Taj.

J N Tata built the Taj as a slap in the face of Imperialist British India. Tata did not live to see India become independent but he laid the foundation of what would later become one of the best known icons of the country.

Today the hotel is in dire state because of the attacks and the fire.

Indian Hotels Co Ltd, which owns the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower, expects to rebuild the iconic hotel “inch by inch”, vice-chairman RK Krishna Kumar said on Thursday.

The first attack at the Taj Mahal Palace took place in the heritage wing of the hotel. The dome was severely damaged. The south block and some part of the northern area has also been damaged. The hotel has also lost a large number of its staff, including five chefs, in the attack, Kumar said.

Kumar said the hotel looked like a battle zone. The Taj Mahal Palace, he said, is a symbol of resurgent India and that is why it was attacked.

Later in the day, expressing concern at the damage caused, Tata Sons chairman Ratan Tata said the city lacks crisis management infrastructure. Tata said the hotel staff would be compensated amply. “We feel rather helpless. We are out of the property… We will do whatever we can. We will not be stingy and will reward and compensate the staff for the hardships.”  [link]

There is no doubt that Tata and Sons, the parent company of Indian Hotels will rebuild the Taj back to its glory and grandeur. It is too dear a landmark to all of Bombay, and India.

As of this hour, nearly 30 hours after the attacks commenced the hostage situation remains grim at the Taj, Oberoi and Nariman House.

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We welcome our latest author Mehernaaz Sam Wadia. Her first post abut a Barbaric Attack is below this post. Here is a SMS she sent after writing that post.

—— SMS Text ——
From: +9198XXXXXXXXX

I just went for a spin on the bike with Shovir. Its a pity this last 24 hours. The weather is beautiful and cool. But marine drive is deserted. Stray cars and bikes here and there. We went up to the pizzeria signal. I’ve taken a couple of photos of the Oberoi. But there’s nothing to be seen. No fire or anything so its just a basic shot. Didn’t go ahead cos there were lots of cops etc. Everyone here has a flabbergasted and shocked reaction. Nobody’s able to digest anything. its surreal actually.

The terrorist attacks in Mumbai, which ordeal is not over even as I write, is, in my opinion a rude and dastardly wake up call. For Mumbai. For Bombay. That we are world citizens.

The world has changed from even what I knew of it, let alone my elders and their reminiscing. Terrorism is such an integral part of our world sense, it nearly seems normal now. Its happening everywhere. Right, wrong, justified, desperate, its happening. Little children know what it means. I cant recollect perfectly, but I’m sure I didn’t learn the word terrorism till my 8th standard when the babri masjid was demolished and the riots followed. But then too, the word floated on the air like a stray feather never really resting. Slowly and steadily though the paradigms of protest and rebellion changed and morphed into what we know now as terrorism. All this happened and we watched our television screens not really bothered as much about the people dying at the Gaza Strip, Rwanda, and everywhere else in the world actually. We were more concerned about the soaps we were missing because we had to watch the news so as to look updated in our social circles (we didn’t have tata sky plus then).

India experienced bomb blasts, time and again. Now more and more ‘again’. That’s a horrible thing to happen. But it happened and ended swiftly. Only to eventually stay in the memories of those who bore the brunt, directly or indirectly. No faces of Satan, no building of a story. Last night and today are different.
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Blood Donors are needed at the Government Hospitals that are treating the hundreds of injured.

JJ Hospital 022-23739400

St George Hospital -022?22620344

Bombay Hospital 22067676 extn216

Twitter feeds have been blasting away with dozens of updates every single minute. These were used by many of the networks to show streaming news on their news channels on TV. 

Twitter users were asking people to stop sending updates and there were rumours that the Government and/or the Military had asked the twitter channel #mumbai be shut down.

However there is no official record of this and Dina Mehta clarified this on twitter. She reports that the news channels have stopped carrying twitter feeds on their TV broadcasts.

In what seems to be a grim situation, a news channel has been communicating with a terrorist holed up at the Oberoi along with the hostages.

A militant holed up inside Mumbai’s Oberoi Hotel told a news channel on Thursday that seven attackers were holding hostages inside the luxury establishment. 

“There are seven of us inside hotel Oberoi,” the man identified as Sahadullah told the channel. “We want all Mujahideens held in India released and only after that we will release the people.” 

“Release all the Mujahideens, and Muslims living in India should not be troubled,” he said.

Entire Story here.

The city awake from a night that no one slept and no one will ever forget. 

The Stock Market will remain closed today. 

There are at least 100+ people dead and at least 6 of them are foreigners. 

The gunfire attacks continued in the morning with the last one at the Oberoi Hotel about an hour ago. 

Residents are being told to stay at home. People have been requested to keep the streets free from traffic etc.

In another couple of hours the city would come back to life as another Thursday dawns. However this Thursday is like no other the city has ever seen.

Schools, colleges, and other establishments are closed for the day, as announced by the Government.

There is no news if other government institutions will follow suit.

Corporate India should be on track to open for business as usual, especially the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange. This would be in line with what happened after the March 12, 1993 bombings. This is more as an act of defiance and not cowing down to terrorist threat and to allow life to go on as normal even in these extraneous times.