The large bullet hole in the mirror and its spider’s web of cracks was a startling reminder of what happened here just two weeks ago when Leopold Cafe may well have been somewhere in downtown Kandahar or Basra.

It was a scene of death and destruction as armed fanatics mowed down innocents – a scene that was being repeated around the corner at the Taj and across town at the Oberoi and Nariman House.

Tonight though, the only reminder that death was here were a few bullet holes here and there, a drawing on the wall marking the moment the gunmen stormed in and a collection jar for the families of the staff members who died in the attack. What was most palpable, however, was a definite “fuck you” attitude from the customers.

Of course, some of the crowd could well have been “terror tourists”, a phenomenon that’s gripping parts of Bombay. In fact, there are more than a few photographing the inside of the cafe. Meanwhile, the area outside the Taj has a carnival atmosphere at the moment as hordes of locals and foreigners pour into the area around the hotel.

Touts, balloon sellers and pan wallahs mix with the ever-present gaggle of reporters and photographers outside the hotel as the constant flow of taxis blast their horns.

Standing behind the police barriers, happy families and tourists have their photographs taken with the charred and bullet-ridden hotel behind, as though it were the actual Taj Mahal.