The farewell dinner for Patrick Cescau, the group chief executive of Unilever Group, at the Mumbai Taj Mahal, turned into the worst nightmare of his life. He was literally holed up for over six hours in one of the private rooms of the hotel, before he was taken out of harm's way.
Over 30 people from Hindustan Unilever (HUL), including some retired members of the board, were having dinner when terrorists barged into the hotel and started firing indiscriminately. These people finally came out of the hotel through a temporary ladder that was fixed on a window early morning. A relieved HUL Chairman Harish Manwani said: “We are all safe.”
“Having gone through this new experience of six hours, I must say that the hotel staff, police and fire officers were extremely good and cooperative,” said ICICI Bank Executive Director Madhabi Puri Buch, who was attending the dinner with her husband, HUL Executive Director Dhaval Buch. Apart from Cescau, Manwani and Buch, the dinner was attended by Unilever CEO-elect Paul Polman, Hindustan Unilever CEO & MD Nitin Paranjpe and some members of the old guard like Keki Dadiseth, Ashok Ganguli, Nihal Kaviratne and MK Sharma.