India, July 6 -- It's the one London hotel where, over the last four decades, nearly every Indian of consequence from Prime Ministers to superstars like Amitabh Bachchan has stayed. It is also the most successful hotel enterprise ever run by an Indian company in a western country. And yet most of us are unaware of the story of London's St James Court hotel and its many trials and triumphs.

My earliest memories of the hotel are not happy. In 1982 I was flying back to India from New York on Air India. In those days Air India operated one flight a day to Mumbai from New York which stopped in London. You had the option, with certain categories of fare, of breaking your journey in London and getting one or two free hotel nights in London.

Th...