For an occasion as significant as the first celebration in the city of the centenary of the Ageless Lady of Apollo Bunder – Taj Mahal Hotel, Mumbai – the turnout at Taj Palace Durbar Hall on Wednesday night was somewhat of a let-down – neither the A-List, nor the Page 3 regulars showed up, although there was a fair sprinkling of expat corporate types, travel trade honchos and the CD second rung.

But those who didn’t come, missed a great evening of riveting music (those of us who were balking at the thought of sitting through a sitar recital stretching across 30 minutes, were bowled over by Nishat Khan by the end of it) and an exceptionally well-made film on the Taj by the extremely talented Zafar Hai and the interminably witty Roshan Seth, who wrote the script as impeccably as he delivered it. We just couldn’t tell 50 minutes had passed.

Otherwise, there was very little for people –watchers to write home about. ‘Master-mind’ Siddharth Basu, who was the first and only cultural attache to be appointed by the Taj Palace much before event management became a fashionable career, regaled us with his account of Pandit Ravi Shankar getting the runs in the middle of a concert that he was giving at the very same Durbar Hall in the early days of the hotel. Police Commissioner R.S. Gupta, as immaculately truned out as ever, looked happy to have overseen the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon without any incident.

Of course, it was flattering to see that the elaborate buffet had been laid out exactly along the lines of the do where we celebrated the launch of the HT City Guide to Eating Out in Delhi. One only wished the spread had a unifying theme, instead of being a pot-pourri of cuisines. The star of the evening, though, was Arun Trikha, the Dosco who’s done a lot of creative work at the Tea House of the August Moon. Trikha cast a magic spell with tofu and shitake mushrooms, not known to lend themselves to innovative interpretations, just as he wowed the guests with his Hunan Noodles and Lobster in garlic Sauce.

And what was the buzz that night? Sharon and his impenetrable security cover, naturally. People in the know were exchanging notes about the Israeli PM’s fleet of explosion-proof Volvo four wheel drives; about how his security detail kept the Taj Mahal Hotel staff on tenterhooks, not letting anyone know where he would enter the hotel from (he came in from the luggage room, but only after the Justice Minister had walked in as his decoy) about how the Taj chefs had to cook the dishes ordered for each meal by Sharon, who’s blessed with a hearty appetite, only after each ingredient had been randomly hand-picked by his security men; and about every fitting, every gadget in the Presidential Suit being the Presidential Suite being replaced on the Sunday before his arrival - the reason; when the IRA targeted Margaret Thatcher at the famous Black-pool Conservative Convention blast that ripped through the hotel where she was staying the bomb apparently had been planted a year before it was set off! Now, how’s that for attention to detail? 

As someone said that evening, when you are up against the world’s most sophisticated terrorist organisation, the Hamas, you’re forgiven for being paranoid.