Mumbai: The general manager of Mumbai`s Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel, Karambir Singh Kang, still works at the place where his wife and two children were killed.
Neeti Kang, 40, Uday, 12, and five-year-old Samar were among the 31 people who died at the luxury seafront hotel after Islamist militants stormed the building on November 26 last year and began shooting.
Kang, 41, who has worked for the Indian Hotels Co. Ltd that owns the Taj for 19 years, confronts his past every day when he crosses the polished marble floor of the hotel lobby to his office, near the memorial to those who died.
Working at the place where he lost his family has been "both difficult and rewarding", he recently said.
"It`s been tough in the way that you have to deal with the memories of whatever has happened, but rewarding when you say you want to carry on and you want to give it your best shot and do the right thing," he said.
"Sometimes, what you fear the most is what you should face first and try to overcome. You first have to deal with what is in your mind. It`s very easy to run and not everyone can do it.
"But sometimes, I think it`s a gift, that God has given you a chance to live."
During the 60-hour siege at the hotel and after his tragic loss, Kang stayed at his post, working to help save the lives of more than 1,000 guests.
Accommodation manager Amit Mehta said Kang led by example and has inspired the rest of the staff as the hotel tries to get back to normal.
"For us the biggest motivating factor was Mr Kang because he was there with us trying to get things done in spite of what happened," said Mehta.
Kang refuses to take any credit, instead praising his colleagues for their courage and resilience and paying tribute to the hotel owners and the Tata Group parent company for looking after the families of fallen staff.
Salaries of those killed are being paid indefinitely, while families will receive money to pay for their children`s education from a trust fund set up to help victims of extremism, violence and natural disasters.
Thirty million rupees of the 90 million rupees raised has already been distributed, a Taj official said.
The 565-room hotel -- a magnet for the rich and famous and an Indian icon for more than a century -- partially reopened less than a month after the attacks.
Three restaurants in the more badly-damaged Palace section of the hotel are due to reopen by the end of November, while the first guests are due back in renovated rooms and suites by March next year.
Mehta said the hotel, where prices range from 19,500 to 50,000 rupees a night, is fully booked on November 26, with many guests who were there last year returning "to show solidarity with the staff and hotel".
Sipping coffee, at Leopold Café
It`s breezy and, oh yes, bustling with people. Over a lunch of roast chicken and cold coffee, Leopold Cafe regular Wesley Paul says casually, "There are gunmen at the door."
As Wesley bites into some succulent meat, he is fully aware that this is the place where two staffers and seven guests were killed in the 26/11 attacks - but is unafraid.
"It`s hard for Leopold Cafe to not embrace people as they come in. It`s tough to keep up a security check," he says.
The cafe is at walking distance from the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel.
"On the night of the attacks, I was on my way to Leopold Cafe," Wesley remembers. "But I heard of some firing happening in the area, and instead went to Henry Thams. We were partying there, oblivious to the magnitude of the firing in the area.
"The night of the attacks was the first time I felt the steel of a gun. I was on my way home at 2 a.m., when a policeman stopped our taxicab. He was seething; his eyes were menacing, frightening. I have never seen a Mumbai cop like that before."
Things, however, have become normal for Wesley.
As with photographer Ritika Jain, another cafe regular, who claims to have never been afraid.
"I went to Leopold Cafe the day its doors were flung open to the press. There were bullet marks on the doors; the ceiling fan was twisted. Abandoned backpacks lined its walls, and fear hung in its air. I walked in, unafraid.
"I was curious, I didn`t know what to expect. But, like everybody there, I turned up to show my support," she says. Both Wesley and Ritika continue to frequent Leopold Cafe, with friends and family.
As one enters the cafe, the atmosphere is relaxed, carefree and this correspondent isn`t subjected to a security check.
"Mostly, we do not check single ladies," explains kitchen supervisor Bharat Gujjar.
A year ago, Bharat was on duty at the Leopold Cafe billing desk when terrorists opened fire, killing nine people there. He was struck down by a grenade, which left him hospitalised for 16 days. He emerged alive, but with 14 stitches on his stomach.
"What happened has happened," says Bharat.
Bharat busies himself around the restaurant - he has barely a few minutes to spare. Like the stream of young and old, foreign nationals and Indians making their way in and out of the famed cafe, for Bharat too, life has moved on.
"Leopold Cafe is like god`s gift. Customers will continue to throng our cafe. As you know, Mumbai only pauses at times, it never stops," he says.
On the way out, patrons point to messages on the wall, bullet marks on the door. The Leopold Cafe, run by two brothers, Farang and Farzad Gehani, has not been repaired, painted or renovated. The extensive damage is there for all to see.
At one table, customer Aayush Iyer is engrossed in a book. "Every once in a while, I come by to Leopold Cafe," he says.
Isn`t he afraid? "No," he answers in a flat tone. "Leopold Cafe is a prime example of how we can forget, or even worse, accept shocking disasters and get by with life. For better, or worse."
For better or worse - but forever.
Chabad House: Remembering a rabbi
You are never going to stop anybody who steps inside the Chabad House" - those were the oft-repeated words of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, head of the Mumbai headquarters of the Chabad House. And that was the instruction followed on Nov 26, 2008 when terrorists stormed in, brutally killing the rabbi, his pregnant wife Rivka and four others.
The terrorists entered Chabad House, Mumbai headquarters of the ultra-orthodox Hasidic Jews, situated inside the better-known Nariman House, near the southern tip of the city, on the night of Nov 26 and laid a bloody siege right till the afternoon of Nov 28. It was one of the last places to be freed of the terrorists.
The 30-year-old rabbi and his wife`s bullet ridden bodies were found along with four others. But his two-year-old son Moshe miraculously survived, thanks to his nanny Sandra Samuel, and is now in Israel.
A year later, the Chabad House is a regular tourist spot with visitors making their way past crowded bylanes. The shops and houses are back in action, the rattle of gunfire faded into memory.
Every square inch of Chabad House is riddled with bullets. Construction work is underway but the reminders of the ghastly attack stand out.
Small groups of people crowd its entrance, and share stories. Like about the late rabbi`s benevolence.
Just a day before the attack, the doors of the Chabad House were thrown open to the very men who attacked it, say some.
Says Daaniel David. who lives nearby: "People were always welcome here, at all times of the day or night. A senior rabbi told me how a group of Jewish youth from the city had come there just before the 26/11 attacks. When they entered the place, the Rabbi accorded them a warm welcome, he invited them to join the evening prayers. But the youngsters seemed more interested in exploring the property, and spent much of the prayer time walking around."
Recollecting the attack, Daaniel, 22, who is a member of the Chabad House, sheds a tear.
"I remember clearly, the day I went to see the revered rabbi`s bullet-ridden body. Bullets had pierced virtually every inch of his frail body; later we learnt that he succumbed to 42 gunshots. Even his wife, Rivka who was five-months pregnant, was not spared. There were bullets fired into the most sacred parts of a woman. It was terrible. The Rabbi and his family did nothing wrong to deserve this brutality..."
The fifth floor of the Chabad House, housed the rabbi, Rivka and their son Moshe. Among the flurry of bullet marks, Moshe`s room still lies painted in yellow and blue with a duck on the door. The terrace holds a breathtaking view of the sea and the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel, which also bore the brunt of the terror attack.
Founded over 100 years ago, the Chabad House made its beginning in Mumbai at 44, Shelleys Estate, opposite the Radio Club, Colaba in 2004. By 2006, the Chabad House had shifted into Nariman House, occupying the entire building.
It has now shifted to another location nearby, informs Elijah, a young Jewish student.
"The Chabad House was a place for discussion and debate; learning and prayer. During Sabbath, we would spend many hours there - dancing, singing, praying and drinking wine. Our meals there were the best part. It was the only place in the city where we could get Kosher meat," Daaniel remembers.
"As Jews we could not eat out at a restaurant, the Chabad House was a lovely place to dine as well. Plus, the Chabad House used to supply Kosher meat to the Taj Hotel. This is why, on the night of the attacks, there was 60 kg Kosher meat in the refrigerator," explains Daaniel.
"But now, we have nowhere to go."
For the Jews who continue to live in the city of Mumbai, things aren`t the same.
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