Sgunshots, screams and sirens. On the evening of November 26, 2008, the Indian economic metropolis of Mumbai was the target of an Islamist terrorist attack. Smoke billows from windows in the colonial heart of the city. The attackers act mercilessly, the police are overwhelmed. More than 160 people die. Gautam Adani survives.
Like many other guests and employees, he was stuck in the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel that evening. In the noblest house on the subcontinent, the terrorists went from room to room, shooting everyone they found. The businessman was lucky. He was with customers in the restaurant, where the really wealthy do their business. His driver and bodyguard were waiting on a side street where all the other Jaguars and Mercedes sedans were parked.
The waiters reacted quick-witted. They crowded their guests into the basement of the sprawling home while gunfire rang out above. From there they later fled to one of the upper floors. Images of flames from the hotel rooms had long been shown on television, and the crackle of automatic weapons could be heard. Adani and the others huddled on sofas, some probably hiding underneath and praying for their lives.
A defining event
Adani, then the tenth richest Indian, later reported that he called his family and forced himself through the dark hours of the night to find trust in God. It was not until the next morning that special police units brought the group of survivors to safety through a back exit.
Adani was immediately taken to the airport and flown in his private jet to his hometown of Ahmedabad, 800 kilometers away. “I saw the death five meters away,” he dictated to reporters on the block.
After that, Adani didn’t make much of a fuss about the dramatic night. He classified the escape as one of the “two or three very unfortunate events” in his life. But this continued, and at a speed that took everyone’s breath away. Adani not only survived the terrorist attack, but also a kidnapping where his family ransomed him. And he’s worked his way up from a college dropout from a middle-class family to the third richest person in the world. His fortune is estimated at around 120 billion euros.
Defying the crises
Only French luxury goods billionaire Bernard Arnault and Tesla Twitter boss Elon Musk are ahead of Gautam Adani in the ranking. Two things are particularly noteworthy about this. Many tech entrepreneurs in particular have lost a lot of money in the year that is coming to an end, while Adani’s wealth has increased by 50 billion euros – more than any other of the super-rich. And unlike Mukesh Ambani, who was number one among the wealthiest Indians for many years, Gautam Adani made it this far on his own without a large inheritance. He is said to have made his first million at the age of 20.