The most philanthropic Chairman of Tata Sons named Ratan Tata is one of the most successful industrialists in India. Ratan Tata, an 83-year-old is widely acknowledged for his work as former chairman of Tata Group and his extraordinary work and kind, calm nature. Ratan Tata took birth on 28th December 1937 in Mumbai, and his father is Naval Tata.
Just for your knowledge, Tata’s real maternal grandmother had been the sister of Hirabai Tata, wife of group founder named Jamshedji Tata. His real grandfather, named Hormusji Tata, is related to the wider Tata family which means Ratan a Tata by birth. Tata’s parents’ Naval and Sonoo changed paths in 1948 when he was merely 10 years old.
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He was eventually brought up by the widow of Sir Ratanji Tata, his grandmother, Navajbai Tata. But she legally adopted him through the J.N. Petit Parsi Orphanage. Many people are aware of the fact that Octagenarian is even today single.
The reason why we never heard of Ratan Tata’s wife is that he was never actually married. But, there was a moment when he also fell in love and was nearly married.
The previous year, in a talk with Facebook page named Humans of Bombay, Ratan Tata discussed his childhood, love life and relationships.
He said that he was once in love and wanted to get married and settle down. Unfortunately, it did not happen and the relationship failed. The primary reason being the Indo-China war of 1962. Ratan Tata said,
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“After college, I landed a job at an architecture firm in LA, where I worked for two years. It was a great time — the weather was beautiful, I had my own car and I loved my job. It was in LA that I fell in love and almost got married. But at the same time, I had decided to move back at least temporarily since I had been away from my grandmother who wasn’t keeping too well for almost 7 years.”
“So I came back to visit her and thought that the person I wanted to marry would come to India with me, but because of the 1962 Indo-China war, her parent’s weren’t okay with her making the move anymore, and the relationship fell apart,” he added.
Ratan Tata also has a half-brother, named Noel Tata. Discussing his childhood and about his parents being divorce, he said,
“I had a happy childhood, but as my brother and I got older, we faced a fair bit of ragging and personal discomfort because of our parent’s divorce, which in those days wasn’t as common as it is today. But my grandmother brought us up in every way.”
He was also reminded of how he was treated through weird and bad comments from boys of his school when his mother decided to remarry.
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“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. It involved walking away from these situations, which otherwise we would have fought back against” Ratan Tata said.
His grandmother was a huge part of his life and, talking about his values and morals he recalled how his grandmother took him along with his brother for summer holidays to London where the values were really put in.
“She’d tell us, ‘don’t say this or ‘keep quiet about that and that’s where ‘dignity above everything else’ really embedded in our minds. And she’s always been there for us. It’s difficult now to say who’s right or wrong,” Tata said.
Ratan Tata with his grandmother Navajbai Sett Humans of Bombay/Instagram
He strongly believed that he wouldn’t have gotten to Cornell University in the US, had his grandmother not been there. His grandmother was the primary reason behind him going for mechanical engineering, he changed majors and graduated with a degree in architecture.
“My father was quite upset and there was a fair bit of rancour, but I was finally my own, independent person in college, and it was my grandmother who taught me that courage to speak up can also be soft and dignified,” said the industrialist.
Ratan Tata at Cornell University. Ratan Tata/Instagram
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