The One thing I introduced was a glimpse of ‘tajness’ that I felt was sorely missing,” Dr Rakshanda Jalil, writer, literary historian and editor of the Taj Magazine that turns 50 this year tells mid-day. Jalil, who took up the reins of the magazine about five years ago, had been familiar with the magazine, having read it during her stays at various Taj hotels, and had admired its eclectic choice of subjects, the variety of people who wrote for it and the editors who helmed it, especially in its early years. “I knew I wanted to retain—and strengthen—that eclecticism… I wanted to have a variety of voices and styles, not to mention subjects from academics to journalists to popular writers, thinkers [and] poets. I knew I wanted to have a broad range, a multiplicity of voices and concerns,” she shares. 

Among the things introduced during her editorship, however, she says, was a subtle focus on aspects of the Taj group that may not have been too well-known. “I felt this was important given the expansion in the IHCL [Indian Hotels’ Company Limited]. I felt these new hotels and properties being added to the Taj portfolio, and in some instances older properties, that were being refurbished need to be talked about, too… So I began to have two articles about two new Taj properties in each issue.”