Katha2025-03-09T12:38:21+05:30

Profile of Puneet Chhatwal: CEO of The Taj hotels

The new Taj CEO's first media interview -- with me. Can a hotel brand be both iconic and hugely profitable, I ask Puneet Chhatwal. “Why not?” he asks back. “We are already iconic. Now we just need to be profitable.” The 54-year-old took charge as the CEO and managing director of Indian Hotels Co. Ltd (IHCL), which runs the Taj chain of hotels, in November and is charting the next phase of growth for one of India’s oldest hospitality brands.

Summer pleasures: the intoxicating taste of padaneer

Come summer and I think of the time my grandmother and I got drunk together. Our libation was the sap of the palmyra tree and it appeared like clockwork this time of year. Called padaneer in Tamil and neera up North, this sap of the Borassus flabellifer tree tasted of jaggery, coconut, and water. The men who sold it to us insisted that it had “no kick,” but was full of “strength and vitamins.”

Role reversal: you become an adult when your parents becomes the child

When do you become an adult? People have different answers for this. Some say that they become adults when they leave home for college, when they make decisions on their own. Others link it to their first kiss, or more prosaically, their first paycheck. One friend said that she became an adult when her parents died. My parents’ relationship is beyond the realm of words or date nights or flowers on anniversaries. Their bond is primal.

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