ShareThisThe red granite floors of the legendary Oberoi hotel, where so much blood spilled during the terrorist attacks of November 2008, have been replaced with spotless sheets of white marble. The new walls show no sign of the bullets, shrapnel and fire that marred this landmark in Mumbai's financial district. The restaurant where gunmen slaughtered dozens of people has been renamed Fenix, a reference to the mythological Phoenix that rises from ashes.
The same symbolism was clearly on the mind of Liam Lambert, a Canadian who serves as president of Oberoi Hotels & Resorts, when he opened up the bar a few nights before the hotel's official re-launch and poured himself a drink called a "Phoenix," while listening to a lounge band playing modern jazz.
The Oberoi's owners want to give the hotel -- and the city of Mumbai -- a fresh start after the terror attacks that continue to cast a shadow over the region.
"It symbolizes Bombay's recovery," said P.R.S. Oberoi, the 81-year-old owner of the hotel chain, using the former name for the city. "The wounds have healed."
The hotelier has certainly made a grand gesture aimed at putting history to rest, spending an estimated $35-million to $40-million to overhaul the building. But the reverberations from the attacks continue to shake India, making headlines again the weekend as Pakistan said it will request extradition of the only suspected gunman who didn't die during the three-day rampage that killed at least 173 people.
India has no legal obligation to hand over the prisoner, Ajmal Kasab, but Pakistan says that his transfer is necessary to comply with India's demands to prosecute others linked with the attacks. The fallout from the Mumbai incident remains a major point of diplomatic friction between the two nuclear powers.
The fear of similar terrorist strikes also continues to haunt India, as the U.S. embassy in New Delhi warned this weekend of a heightened threat against markets used by foreigners.
Even the low-key ceremony that marked the Oberoi's reopening on Saturday had the hallmarks of extra caution about security. Fewer than 20 guests and a small group of hand-picked journalists were invited to watch a politician light a lamp and cut a red ribbon in an event that lasted less than an hour. The participants were vastly outnumbered by security personnel, as men with automatic weapons lounged in armored vehicles outside the hotel and others patrolled the upper floors of the sun-drenched atrium.
The hotel has reportedly installed 150 video cameras, an increase from 15 previously, and hired five times as many security officers as it had on the payroll at the time of the attacks. Two separate consultancies evaluated the security improvements. Oberoi proudly gestured at the towering windows of the main lobby, explaining that all the glass is now shatterproof.
The reopening included a prayer ceremony with religious leaders from eight different faiths. Some victims and their families were invited, including Srichand Chhabria, director of the nearby Sea Palace Hotel, but he could not bring himself to attend. The 77-year-old lost his son Ajit and daughter-in-law Monica during the attacks. When two gunmen stormed the building, the couple had been entertaining friends at one of the Oberoi's restaurants.
Remodeling the hotel and adding security does not ease the fear that such incidents will happen again, Chhabria said.
"Memories are short, people forget," he said. "But I personally feel this menace is here to stay for some time."
The hotel's lobby looked vastly different last year, when the Canadian hotel executive Lambert arrived in Mumbai to help with the restoration.
"It was an utter shambles," Lambert said. "All the windows were broken, the ceiling windows were broken, there were holes here in the lobby, the furniture was all destroyed. We had damage not only from fire and grenades, but also our sprinkler system worked very successfully so there was more water damage than anything else. Of course all the carpets were ruined, the mattresses were ruined, so we had to get rid of everything."
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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