26/11 was Oberoi hotel employee Sulekha Walawalkar's first ever visit to Taj
26/11 was Oberoi hotel employee Sulekha Walawalkar's first ever visit to Taj
Sulekha Walawalkar is a front office supervisor at the Oberoi Hotel and is fiercely proud of where she works.
But on her 48th birthday on November 26 last year, her husband suggested they go to the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower for the first time ever and celebrate it at the Golden Dragon restaurant.
They were in the lobby at 9.30 pm that evening when Sulekha's husband, Vijay, got a call. "He had just stepped out and the firing began. I thought it was some gang war.
I was quickly ushered into the Taj Chambers, where there were over 200 people due to a wedding," said Sulekha.
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Vijay, who also works with the Oberoi Hotel, said, "I thought Sulekha would be safe, so I left for the Oberoi immediately."
Meanwhile, Sulekha was busy receiving birthday calls from well-wishers.
"My battery began to die and I decided to make one last call to a friend telling her that my phone would soon die out and that my husband and children should know that I love them," she said.
Sulekha and four to fiveu00a0 other women locked themselves in a toilet.
Help arrived at 3 am when a naval commando announced that everyone in the Taj Chambers would be taken out in batches of 10. That was when Sulekha got really lucky.
"While an old foreigner and I were walking out, I tripped on my high heels and fell.
The foreigner bent to pick me up. At that exact moment, some bullets whizzed past and killed three people in front of me.
Had I not fallen though, I would've died," said Sulekha, who unknowingly also saved the foreigner's life.
Water at Taj
Sulekha will finally see the Golden Dragon this year on her birthday. "We don't have a booking, but I'm determined to have at least a glass of water there. I couldn't even manage that much last year," she said.
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