Prashant Mangeshikar, 52, a gynaecologist, owes his life to a maintenance worker in the Taj Mahal hotel. Mr Mangeshikar, his wife and daughter were in the foyer when gunmen attacked. Hotel staff shepherded the guests upstairs, only to come face-to-f
ace with another militant who also opened fire.
"The man in front of my wife shielded us. He took the bullets," said Mr Mangeshikar, who with a few others dragged the wounded hotel employee – identified only as "Mr Rajan" – into one of the rooms.
For the next 12 hours, Mr Mangeshikar and other guests tried to push back the wounded hotel worker's intestines with bedsheets and stop the bleeding. He was finally evacuated, but it was not known if he survived.
Mr Mangeshikar said: "The hotel staff has been very, very brave." He added that, but for the courage of Mr Rajan, his wife and daughter could have been dead. "I'm going out to the hospital to find out what happened to him," he said. "I owe it to that brave man."
THE CHEF
Kanda Noriyaki, a chef at the Taj Mahal's Japanese restaurant, led trembling and screaming guests to safety. "We hid in the restaurant," he said. "We could hear the firing somewhere very close. Intermittently, there were blasts."
Many evacuees from the hotel have also hailed the bravery of the staff. "Just imagine, they even served us food the first few hours," said one hotel guest, who did not wish to be named. "Only when the kitchens became out of bounds did they express regret for not being able to serve us food."
Another recounted how Taj staff stopped panicky guests from rushing into the lobby where militants could have shot them. "They were brilliant," Bhisham Mansukhani said. "If they hadn't kept their cool, many more lives would have been lost."
The wife and children of the Taj's general manager who lived on the premises were killed in the attacks. Witnesses said many trainee chefs had been killed in the kitchen of the Taj.
THE SECURITY GUARD
Bob Nicholls, security director for the South African bodyguards providing protection for cricketers playing in the Indian Premier League tournament, helped lead 120 hostages to safety from the Taj Mahal. Armed only with knives and meat cleavers, the seven guards helped other hotel guests to safety down a fire escape, carrying a traumatised 80-year-old woman in a chair down 25 flights of stairs.
Mr Nicholls said: "Everybody was calm and no-one became hysterical."
The group had been eating in the restaurant and planning to get an early night when they heard shooting. They barricaded the doors to a conference centre with tables and refrigerators and kept guests calm, while they worked out what to do.
THE POLICE CHIEF
Hemant Karkare, 54, chief of the police anti-terrorist squad (ATS) in Mumbai, was one of 14 policemen killed. Alongside police commissioner Ashok Kamte and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar, he died fighting terrorists at the Taj Mahal.
Apart from solving the serial bomb blasts in Thane, Vashi and Panvel, Karkare was the man following the terror trail in the Malegaon blast case.
District superintendent of police Chandrakant Kumbhar said: "They both possessed a lion's heart. I participated in anti-Naxalite operations with Kamte. Instead of just barking orders, he led his team in all operations. He was intelligent, soft-spoken and methodical. These men can never be substituted."
OBEROI HOTEL STAFF
London lawyer Mark Abell, 51, barricaded his room at the Trident Oberoi hotel with furniture and prepared for the worst. He was overwhelmed with relief when staff and police officers knocked on the door.
The father of two said: "Very efficiently, they took my luggage, put me in the lift, took me down to the lobby and walked me through the carnage. These people here have been fantastic, the Indian authorities, the hotel staff. They are a great advertisement for their land."
