Uncomplicated. Jokester. Turn-around guy. Saviour. Survivor.
Karambir wasn’t supposed to be his name.
There’s a running joke at the Indian Hotels Group. If Karambir Kang was in a plane and saw a corporate conference below, he’d say “Jump!” It’s an inside joke. The kind you only get well after you’ve spent years with a person. They all crack up.
Even before the attacks, there was something about the Taj. People just didn’t leave. Portly old waiters didn’t get replaced by young, better looking ones. Women went on maternal leave and came back. Employees got offered better jobs and chose to stay. Kang has been there for 19 years.
And every year he worked harder, often going home just to sleep. There probably wasn’t much time for girls. In the early 1990s, when Kang was still in sales, the women he talked to mostly consisted of the other girls in the department.
(This story appears in the 08 January, 2010 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)