Shantanu Naidu is Tata Group’s Chairman Emeritus, Ratan Tata’s young assistant. He recently remarked that without Ratan Tata he was an “unmoulded clay”. The young man thanked his mentor on the occasion of Guru Purnima as he is honored that Ratan Tata came into his life.
Shantanu is currently the General Manager at the Ratan Naval Tata (RNT) office. He took to LinkedIn to show his gratefulness to his guru on the festival largely celebrated by Jains, Hindus, and Buddhists to honor their teachers or gurus for their mentorship and guidance.
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Guru Purnima is a festival celebrated on a full moon day or Purnima. The occasion also marks the birth anniversary of ‘Veda Vyasa’, who is considered the author of Mahabharata.
How did Shantanu Naidu meet Ratan Tata?
The young man from Mumbai resident caught Tata’s attention in November 2019, as he came forward with his initiative ‘Motopaws’ involving stray dogs. He managed to secure a place in the philanthropist’s heart with his thoughtful initiative of reflector collars that could save the lives of stray dogs.
Soon after, he was offered a job as Tata’s assistant. This year, he was promoted to the General Manager role at Tata’s Office. He also holds the position of Deputy General Manager at the Chairman’s Office for Tata Trusts.
Shantanu calls Ratan Tata the ‘millennial Dumbledore’
Naidu’s dream was to write a book and he got to follow his dream during the pandemic. He launched his first book ‘Came Upon A Lighthouse’ in collaboration with HarperCollins Publishers India. It is an illustrated memoir in which Naidu shared the life lessons he learned from his boss and mentor, whom he fondly calls the ‘millennial Dumbledore’. The young author also shared some candid moments of what it was like to work with Tata.
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Shantanu described his book on LinkedIn as,
“Tata, personally, should not be limited to me alone. There are shades of him other than a humble businessman which I have tried my best to capture in this light-hearted narration. I also wanted to talk about how genuine and wholesome intergenerational friendships can be, and Sanjana’s emotion-drenched illustrations definitely help with that,”
All the proceeds from the book will go to Sparsh Trust which is an upcoming hustling animal welfare organization as promised by Naidu.
Shantanu’s token of gratefulness to Ratan Tata on Guru Purnima
The 28-year-old shared that on the auspicious event of Guru Purnima his mother always insisted that he offers flowers and coconut to his teachers as a token of gratefulness. The ritual continues today as he shared this note with a picture of him beside the Tata Trusts Chairman where both are twinning in white shirts.
The young entrepreneur has 55,827 followers on LinkedIn and he made a point to remind everyone that Guru Purnima was a ‘good day’ to thank their gurus.
Naidu added,
”
Not once since childhood has my Amma let me leave the house on Guru Pournima day without flowers and a coconut for anyone even distantly a teacher to me.
Of all the forms of relationships one can have with a Guru, Dasya (service) and Sakhyam (friendship) are paramount I think 🙂
A good day to tell your gurus how grateful you are today 🙂 Without them we’re just unmoulded clay
“
Take a look at Shantanu’s LinkedIn post
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Shantanu’s followers were happy with his gesture and left several comments on his post
Naidu once said Ratan Tata’s acts of kindness are selfless and so he never backs out on doing things for people, who can do nothing for him. He said,
“Do it for people who can do nothing for you. Who cannot return it in any form of favour. Acts of kindness should not have an expectation of return. He will just help so many people each day and then totally forget about it,”
He also added,
“The acts of kindness usually shouldn’t have any expectation of return. He helps someone and forgets about it,”
He emphasized Tata’s 2 crore values that almost all of Tata’s actions are taken upon – acts of kindness and keeping his promises.
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