Two Sydney men Brett Taylor and Doug Markell were not so lucky and were confirmed dead by their family and friends in the tragedy in Mumbai where more than 325 others were injured and 195 killed, when 10 terrorists reportedly from Pakistan, armed with grenades and automatic weapons, launched simultaneous attacks on The Oberoi Trident, Taj Mahal Hotel, the central station, a hospital, Nariman Jewish centre last Wednesday.
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Earlier, the water and power had been cut off and Harvison survived on wine samples he had brought from the Hunter Valley and chocolate bars from the mini-bar in his room at Oberoi Trident Hotel where he had been staying after spending a few days in Delhi earlier with a business delegation from New South Wales.
The breakthrough came after the soldiers stormed the hotel, fighting a pitched battle floor-by-floor against the terrorists who were armed with assault rifles and grenades.
Mobile phones became the saviours for Harvison and several other guests who were keeping constant touch with the outside world and were being warned not to answer the hotel phones or make any sounds as it was a terrorist attack and they could be killed if they came out.
"I'm ecstatic," Harvison said as he arrived back in Sydney late on Saturday. 'All I could think about was my family and just getting home and just to be on Aussie soil really,' he added.
In the same mis-hap, a member of our associate, Delhi Wine Club was entrapped but was able to come out of the hotel with the help of the hotel staff. Ajay Bahl, a corporate lawyer was staying at the Oberoi Trident Hotel. He was planning to have dinner with his foreign clients, also staying at the hotel, at the Kandhar Restauarant where the massacre took place later. At the last minute, he decided to take them to Indiana Jones Restaurant, at the lower level. While they were having dessert, they heard the gun shots, steadily increasing in intensity and frequency. Fortunately, the senior staff present had the presence of mind and escorted all the guests to the nearby Regal Room through the kitchen from where about 200 people were rushed out to Inox theater in batches of 10.
Bahl was all praise for the hotel staff which went out of the way to ensure safety of the guests when they did not even know exactly what was happening. Stuck till 6:30 in the morning with the rest of the crowd, Bahl was livid with the lapse on the part of the government agencies and the TV media who had been giving out information about the movement of the people when the TV sets were still switched on in the rooms, thus informing the terrorists about the going ons outside.
Indian Wine Academy had selected one of Yarraman Estate Chardonnay 2004 to be one of the wines to be tasted at the Guided Tasting of Australian and NZ Wines at the IFE-India 2008 on Dec 3 from 2:30-3:30 pm- before the Mumbai tragedy had struck. We shall propose a thanksgiving Toast with this wine now, says Subhash Arora, President of Indian Wine Academy who is organising these Tastings- editor |