Tipples at the Taj, and a Step Back in Time to Bombay’s Jazz Age

IT’S BEEN A LONG DAY. You have much to digest. But before you turn in, you should have a nightcap at the grand old Taj Mahal Palace hotel. This will revive your spirit and encourage deep sleep.

If you were visiting the Taj of the late 1940s when the thrill of India’s new independence hung in the air, you’d have first needed to hurry home for a bath, a dusting of talcum powder, a slick of Brylcreem, some cologne and a dress shirt perhaps. You’d have been going to a dinner or a dance. (For Shamil, the smell of Brylcreem so vividly reminds him of his handsome and enterprising grandfather who in 1947 would have been too poor to frequent the Taj hotel.)