As I enter through the old-style revolving door, my legs shake, not knowing if I’d be welcome. As I show my green passport to the friendly woman clad in a red sari at the reception my hands tremble… What if they turn away my family and me? I realise my apprehensions are misplaced as the staff at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai greet us with much warmth and go on to record the details required for a smooth check-in. I am almost instantly converted -- I know now, a guest here is supreme even if she comes from across India’s western border.

I look at the lobby and its grandeur surrounding me. In front of me, forming the backdrop of the Hotel’s front desk, is a triptych created by famous artist M.F. Husain titled ‘Three Stanzas of the New Millennium’ which depicts India’s relationship with tradition and modernity. I ask, in awe, if this is the infamous artwork that the Taj had commissioned to Husain, the barefoot Indian Picasso? Is this what he created in nine months while staying at the hotel? The woman looks up, smiles and says, "Yes ma’am". I wonder if it was damaged during the 26/11 attack… "No ma’am, it escaped the terrorist attack -- unblemished!"

I check in at the Taj, where from the radiance of the artwork to the red roses arranged on the round centre table to the opulent waterfall and the comforting air of hospitality, nothing, absolutely nothing, suggests that less than seven years ago, on Nov 26, 2008, gunmen, carrying bulging rucksacks freely roamed around with only one aim - to kill and damage everything in sight. That this was where the terrorists were on a murderous rampage, where on that unfortunate day, people scattered in panic as they were shot at, and dead bodies rested everywhere. There was horror everywhere.

Perhaps, the subtly inscribed names of 20 guests and 11 staffers on white marble serve as the only reminder at the hotel of the terrorist atrocities of Nov 2008.  Among the list of names is one Lucy, the security dog that was killed in the carnage too.

Later, during the four-night stay at the hotel, I ask the gentleman at the concierge desk if he was there at the time of the attack, he says he wasn’t; I ask the lady at the front desk, if she was witness to the gruesome sight, she says she wasn’t; I ask Deepika, a senior chef at the restaurant, if she was there, she says her shift had just ended but she was told "they ran through our kitchen, firing, killing seven men in the kitchen alone". I see remorse in her eyes, but she looks determined to serve the guests with a smile and meticulously prepared food her team at the hotel.

Now, years on, the hotel seems to have come a long way - from once a target of terrorists’ hatred to a place of sheer grace. Located on the eastern waterfront in the Colaba area of Mumbai, it was opened on Dec 16, 1903 by Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata. It overlooks the iconic Gateway of India that was created 21 years after the hotel was built and from where the last British regiment paraded off after Independence. The cusped arches and carved cornices… the exterior of the building testifies to the grandeur of Gothic, Greco-Roman, Islamic and Rajasthani architecture topped by a Florentine dome.

The rooms offer contemporary comfort combined with the respect for tradition. In the old heritage wing the bay windows offer the sweeping view of the Arabian Sea, and the full-length glass windows of the newer tower overlook the organised chaos called Mumbai. Some rooms in both the wings oversee the swimming pool - where according to accounts the first shots were fired on 26/11. The grand staircase leading to the rooms in the heritage wing is simply wow!

The poolside is an ideal place to enjoy a cup of afternoon tea with all possible colonial nukhras - especially brewed tea in sparkling white teapot, poured into cups by immaculately uniformed waiters. The tea comes with assorted biscuits.

Taj Mahal Palace was the first hotel in India to be installed with electricity, German lifts and Turkish baths.

At the Taj in Mumbai, I did not hear the word "no" to any request. The staff at the Sea Lounge, where I had breakfast, was more than willing to serve items not on the buffet menu. On merely asking if custard apples were already in season in Mumbai, they sent off a man to fetch one from a nearby fruit stall as there was none available at the hotel.

The hotel’s Harbour Bar is the oldest licenced bar in Mumbai. The connection between the American prohibition era and Mumbai’s Harbour Bar is as real as its signature cocktail, Harbour Bar 1933, which was invented in the year the bar opened. The cocktail is based on the legend that an American who had his yacht fastened by the Gateway of India heard about the abolition of prohibition in his country, entered the Harbour Bar to celebrate and demanded a cocktail which would blow him away. The bartender used Indian fruit juices to concoct a cocktail that is now known as Harbour Bar 1933 -- and they flambé it right at the table.

This is where once the maharajas and the British gentry met, where Lord Mountbatten spoke to the Indians two days after the independence in 1947, where many years later, in one of its suites, George Harrison studied sitar music with Ravi Shankar. The list of guests who stayed at this iconic hotel is long and includes President Obama, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, George W. Bush, Richard Gere, John Lennon, Oprah Winfrey and others. Over the 110-year history, the hotel has hosted and entertained many luminaries with cabaret, music and merriment. Today, it welcomes guests from all over the world and Mumbai’s new generation of movers and shakers to its bars, restaurants and banquets.

A previous version of the article mentioned India Gate, instead of Gateway of India, as the iconic structure near the hotel. The error is regretted.