Taljinder Singh

'Tajness' Personified

Interviewed by: Farzana Contractor
Photographed by: Farzana Contractor

Taljinder Singh candidly confesses he does not have a resume, all typed and ready that he can email to my office. And I can only attribute one single reason to that; he doesn’t need it. Quite simply he isn't planning on going anywhere, Taj-less. Right, he is a Taj man. Has been for 29 years. Right since he began his career as Lobby Manager at the iconic Taj Mahal Hotel in New Delhi. Or perhaps even before when he was a young and raring to go recruit at Taj’s (IHCL - Indian Hotels Company Limited) Post Graduate Management  Development Program in 1990.

By virtue of being a one company man, Taljinder Singh joins the ranks of those of his predecessors-stalwarts in the field of hoteliering, who retired from the Taj after joining there as young men and women. Taljinder describes himself as a ‘pahadi’ hailing as he does from the mountains of Simla. He grew up in this picturesque town, going to nursery and kindergarten at Loretto Convent, where he made his first ‘girl friendships’ which he still maintains. Junior and senior schooling was at St Edwards and Bishop’s Cotton and later he attended college in Delhi at Sri Ram. He reminences, “I couldn’t manage at first, being a small town guy, I even had difficulty hopping on to the DTC public buses, I used to fall off a lot of times!”

But kudos, he held on to the Taj luxury bus. After his first and exciting job as Lobby Manager at Taj, Delhi, he went on to attaining numerous key positions with the group. Prior to being appointed as the Area Director Mumbai Hotels & General Manager at The Taj Mahal Palace in 2015, he was the General Manager at Taj Palace Hotel, New Delhi and has been General Manager of Taj Bengal. With that he became a three city specialist, Delhi, Bombay and Calcutta! But apart from that has also been involved in various operational assignments across properties of IHCL, including leading some key assignments and corporate level project teams during his career span.

Presently, Taljinder couldn’t be in a better space. He heads what can easily be termed the headquarter hotel of the group, The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai. He is General Manager of this property since the past four years and he has been doing a darn good job of it. Recently he got an additional charge and a new designation; Senior Vice President – SeleQtions and South Mumbai Hotels.

Taljinder loves his job, that is apparent in what he speaks and how he speaks. His enthusiasm hasn’t ebbed from his student days. He is so thankful, grateful, for the wonderful opportunities he has had interacting with the kind of people one can never imagine even meeting. That is the one aspect of his job that he cherishes. When I ask him to single out unfadeable memories, he recounts the time when he was the GM at Taj Palace in Delhi and the BRICS Summit had just ended. There was a lot of anxiety considering India was hosting the summit for the first time, but all went well and it was a huge success. And he had Dr Manmohan Singh walk up to him, pat his shoulder and say, “You did India proud.” “I can't tell you how I cherish that memory,” says Taljinder.

Another story Taljinder narrates after some prodding, (for he doesn’t want to appear he is showing off), deals with Japan's Imperials. “His Royal Highness had come for a week to India to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. And I was in charge of making sure they had a wonderful stay at the Taj. The beauty was they had been here for their honeymoon too… They treated him with much respect, the icing on the cake, he says, was at the end of the day, when they retired, they would request if he could come to their suite. Once there, very politely, they would thank him for looking after them. “Very special moments. Very humbling. You learn so much from such cultured, extraordinary people,” says Taljinder Singh.

But wait, when asked what is absolutely his big high at the Taj, he unabashedly states, “The opportunity I get every morning to interact with Mr Ratan Tata, one on one, even if for just five minutes!” He also cherishes the memory of his first meeting with Mr JRD Tata. “Suite 422, Taj Mansingh, the colour of the carpet was green, what a man, what an extraordinary human being!” Agree.

A side hidden from public view is that Taljinder Singh loves architecture and says if he wasn’t into the hospitality business, he would have surely been an architect. For his passion for the subject and immense knowledge he has gained down the years, on the same, he is actually in charge of the restoration of the Taj’s flagship iconic structure that every Bombay person is particularly nostalgic about. “The stones of this beautiful edifice is Blue Basalt. It needs to breathe to continue to look good. Not to be washed with epoxy and resin. So the process of gently and lovingly peeling off those layers is on…” he smiles and tell me. I believe, copper slag blasting, the method is called. Once done, the ‘pointing’ between the stones will be done with lime and mortar. Well, here’s to a 1000 years of the Bombay Taj!

Another side to Taljinder is that he is a nature worshipper who loves trekking. We can attribute this to his growing up years. With his dad, an engineer in the paramilitary division, (formed in 1965, with the idea of guarding the Indo-China border), Taljinder travelled with him wherever he went, as early as when he was six years old. An so has trekked extensively in Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal, Garhwal, Kumaon, Sikkim, as well as Bhutan. “Yes, I make it a point to go away to the mountains, once a year.” What helps is his wife Ritu, an army officer’s daughter, also shares his passion and they trek together. They plan to soon take Meher, their seven-year-old on her first trek. Says Taljinder, “It’s very important, you know to introduce children to nature. I was always taught, God resides in the mountains, respect them and you will be protected. To be honest, I have visited more monastries than gurudwaras and I enter a cathedral with same reverance as I do, a temple or a mosque, God is everywhere.”

A beautiful expression indeed, but that is what you can expect from a dad who took his little daugher when she was just two years old to Dalhousie, to introduce her to a forest, to show her snow and take her first few steps on God’s good earth.