Smoke? What Smoke?

The basic fact about India is the smoke, wood-smoke from people burning wood fires anywhere the mood takes them, such as right on the street. But after three weeks I have been surprised that in the small heritage hotels you don't get to notice the smoke inside the hotel room.

But then we checked into the ITC Mughal, a five-star hotel in Agra, just down the street from the Taj Mahal. The corridor outside our room was noticeably smoky, and the room was detectably smoky.

I was outraged, as you might imagine. Here I was, staying in a fancy-pants five-star hotel and the pollution level in the room was worse than in hotels costing much less. The ITC Mughal is built to western standards with standard room A/C. So how could the hotel design and implement an air-conditioning system without the filtering capacity to filter out the wood-smoke from the outside? This is not rocket science, sports fans. It's an outrage and an insult!

So we complained to the manager on duty in the lobby and guess what? He said he didn't detect any smoke.

Well of course he didn't. He probably lived his entire life in Indian cities, and smoke is a way of life in Indian cities.

I have some Brahmin friends in the US to whom the air quality in the US is a revelation; they feel much healthier in the US.

But have no fear. The hotel was down with the environmental movement. There was a CO2 impact calculator in the room so you could, I suppose, calculate the environmental impact of flying to Agra in your private jet, darling. Because really, First Class these days...

Right now, after a morning tour of the Taj Mahal along with the rest of the world (yes it really is the most beautiful building in the world), I am sitting in a fancy-pants marble inlay store selling marble inlay tschotsckes after the manner of the inlaid marble at the Taj. The store is selling stuff made by the supposed descendants of the craftsmen that made the inlaid marble at the Taj in the 17th century. In here, no problem from the smoke.

How come Mr. ITC Mughal manager? What's yer problem, pal? Where are your engineers, your technicians, your environmental impact teams?👍 Are they all just churning out mindless conventional-wisdom propaganda instead of solving real problems to improve the experience and the quality of your hotel? The world wonders.

My feeling is that when corporate management starts worrying about fashionable ruling-class conceits, then it is no longer seriously in business, but just going through the motions. Sell, sell, sell.