Ratan Tata is surely giving a tough fight to the millennials on Instagram. Recently the ever charming former chairman of the Tata group opened up about his personal life in an interview to Humans of Bombay. Tata also spoke extensively about his parents’ divorce and the values taught to him by his grandmother.
In the interview, Mr Tata spoke about his childhood and his equation with brother with whom he had personal discomfort after the divorce of their parents. He also goes on to share how it was his grandmother who nurtured core human values in him and made him the dignified man he is today.
Over the years, one has really not heard much about Tata’s personal life when it came to marriage or having a partner. However, in his interaction with the social media handle, Mr Tata admitted falling in love while working at an architecture firm in LA and almost ended up getting married. However, destiny had other plans and he had to return to India to his ailing grandmom.
Ratan Tata Fell In Love & Was Almost Married
1962 Indo-China war was a testing time for his relationship and sadly, his love and her family did not appreciate the girl moving to India to be with him. Relationship fell apart and Tata remained unmarried till date.
Published on February 12, the insta post has already garnered almost 16k Likes and tons of comments. Some of them read:
His family literally built this country with their steel, and yet look at his humility.
Another user said,
Love at the time of war, not a great time to be in love. Did she never marry as well? Now that would be a great love story altogether!
A third netizen wrote,
What a gem of a person! He has dedicated an entire room in Bombay House for stray dogs! Plus he is so humble!
Read full excerpt of his interview below:
I had a happy childhood, but as my brother & I got older, we faced a fair bit of ragging & personal discomfort because of our parent’s divorce, which in those days wasn’t as common. But 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 & 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’ve fought back against.
I remember, after WW2, she took my brother & I for summer holidays to London. It was there that the values were really hammered in. She’d tell us, ‘don’t say this’ or ‘keep quiet about that’ & that’s where ‘dignity above everything else’ really embedded in our minds.
Ratan Tata With Naval And Noel Tata
And she’s always been there for us. It’s difficult now to say who’s right or wrong. I wanted to learn to play the violin, my father insisted on the piano. I wanted to go to college in the US, he insisted on UK. I wanted to be an architect, he insisted on me becoming an engineer. If it weren’t for my grandmother, I wouldn’t have ended up at Cornell University in the US. It was because of her that even though I enrolled for mechanical engineering, I switched majors & graduated with a degree in architecture. My father was upset & there was a fair bit of rancour, but I was finally my own, independent person in college & it was my grandmother who taught me that courage to speak up can also be soft & dignified.
After college, I landed a job at an architecture firm in LA, where I worked for 2 years. It was a great time–the weather was beautiful, I had my own car & loved my job. It was in LA that I fell in love & almost got married. But at the same time I’d made the decision 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 & 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 & the relationship fell apart.
Ratan Tata With Grandmother
Recently his instagram handle received immense love and fans flooded his post with heartwarming comments over his picture on sitting on the floor. However, a woman commented,
Lady calls Ratan Tata “Chhotu”
“Congratulations chhotu” with a heart emoji.
This did not go well with his ardent followers and they started bashing the lady with hateful comments. That’s when Rata Tata stepped in and replied to her comment with utmost kindness. He wrote with a smile emoji,
There is a child in each one of us. Please treat this young lady with respect.
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