The Ratan Tata we did not know

1944: CHILDHOOD LESSON Ratan’s parents had had a love marriage, a rarity in the socially conservative India and the equally traditional Parsi community of the pre-Independence era. I then handed over my CV to JRD; and that’s how I got into Tata.’ JRD wanted Ratan to begin on the shop floors of two of the group’s best-run, best-managed and largest companies, the Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company and the Tata Iron and Steel Company, both situated in Jamshedpur in east India. A leading business daily wrote that ‘Tata directors like Nani Palkhivala, Russi Mody and Minoo Mody were bitterly disappointed at Ratan’s choice.’ Ratan himself, with his characteristic humility, said: ‘I was as pleasantly surprised—it was as if my name had been something else.’ 2000: THE TETLEY ACQUISITION After taking over as chairman of the Tata Group in 1991 just two years short of its 125th year, Ratan renewed his commitment to transform the group from a primarily Indian entity to a conglomerate with a significant overseas presence. 2022: THE RETURN OF THE MAHARAJA When the Air India proposal was discussed with Ratan, he ‘did not show excitement’, nor did he say, ‘somehow we should do it’, says Chandrasekaran. ‘If you close your eyes and think of the Tata Group’, you cannot miss the image of JRD in front of the Air India plane, he says.