Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, passed away at 86, leaving behind an indelible legacy of humility, innovation and philanthropy. The visionary businessman shaped India’s industrial and philanthropic landscape under Tata Group, which evolved into a global powerhouse. His transformation from a young architect graduate to being India’s one of respected business tycoons had not been a cakewalk. He had to deal with several hardships right from his childhood. However, there was an inspiring woman in his life who became a powerful influence and sculpted his extraordinary life.
Ratan Tata was born to Naval Tata, the noted alumnus of the Tata Group. He went through a traumatic childhood after his parents Naval and Sooni Commissariat went through a divorce. Following this, his grandmother Navajbai Tata took him and his brother Jimmy under her care. Navajbai managed the Tata Sons estate after she became a widow at the young age of 41. She happily played a motherly figure and imbibed him with equal proportions of love and moral values.
In an old interview, Ratan opened up about his grandmother and elaborated on how she shaped his personality. “My grandmother brought us up in every way. Soon after when my mother remarried, the boys at school started saying all kinds of things about us -- constantly and aggressively. But our grandmother taught us to retain dignity at all costs, a value that's stayed with me until today,” he told Humans of Bombay.
Ratan has also dedicated every bit of success to his grandmother, who brought him back to India. Initially, Ratan intended to make Los Angeles his permanent home after he graduated from Cornell University. In an old interview, Ratan had revealed that he loved America from a young age. “I was in the US working as an architect and as a structural engineer for a period of time after I graduated. I had no intention of coming back. I was not well settled but I was happily employed there, “ he told Simi Grewal in an interview.
Further, Ratan Tata had reflected on one pivotal moment in his life that transformed his life. “My grandmother brought me back, she was old, she was ailing and she wanted to see me again and she appealed to me. In those days, even telephone calls were hard, you know you had to book a call and they weren't an everyday thing and she appealed to me and it touched me so I went back," he was quoted as saying to veteran journalist Karan Thapar in BBC interview.
Meanwhile, Ratan Tata breathed his last at Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital late on Wednesday (October 9, 2024). His mortal remains have been kept at the National Centre of Performing Arts, in south Mumbai for the public to pay their respects.
