A UW-Stout professor is talking about losing six of his former colleagues in the terrorist attacks in India.

Peter D'Souza was a chef at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, India from 1982 until 1985.

He says he brought what he learned there to Stout where he teaches hospitality and tourism.

"That is my home," D’Souza says.

Last week, his home came under attack. Close to 200 people died as terrorists brought violence to restaurants, the railway station and two luxury hotels; one of them the Taj Mahal.

"I grew up in Bombay. It's now called Mumbai. I still have family there," D’Souza says.

His extended family is his hotel co-workers; six were killed in the attack.

"I visited there two years ago and went back to the hotel and they still remembered me because it's a family atmosphere,” D'Souza says. “Initially I was shocked, and then horrified to see the hotel in flames and more horrified to see my colleagues were killed. I didn’t know that until four days later."

D'Souza worked in the hotel's main banquet kitchen for three years before leaving India to study the hospitality business and eventually to teach it.

"Some of that expertise I learned at the Taj Hotel in Bombay is what I’m sharing with my students here in the United States. There's a good connection there," he says.

It's a connection the professor says he won't soon forget; and a home he will continue to visit.

"It's where I was born and where I started my professional career and it made me who I am as a chef,” D’Souza says. “I can't forget that and I will go back to show unity—that hospitality will go on.”