An Unusual Man

What should one say at a moment like this when one is torn between a deep sense of loyalty and friendship and an objective view of how much the world was a better place when Ratan Tata was alive?

How should one define a man whose legacy will live on not for 10, 20, or 30 years but for centuries? When cancer patients who come from faraway towns and cities in India will have one man to thank, a man they have never seen, a man they will never see but a man they will feel, whose generosity they will experience and whose love they will embrace?

How does one define a man who has trod and worked like a colossus in Indian industry and in Indian business? How does one define a man who was as comfortable flying a fighter jet as he was preparing an old Cadillac? How do you define a man whose idea of great homes is homes for rescue dogs, for those animals for whom he built a shelter and more recently a small animals’ hospital?

This was not a normal human being. He was not even extraordinary. He was just unusual. And that’s how I would remember Ratan Tata.

Ratan Tata was an unusual man.

Unusual in the way he looked at life, unusual in the way he conducted business and unusual in the manner in which he embraced every facet of life. He looked at people, people without discrimination, people without privilege. For him it did not matter who you were, where you came from, what language you spoke, and what you wore. What mattered to him was if you shared his passion, if you were part of his moral compass, and if you actually believed that the world could be made into a far better place.

Ratan Tata was perhaps the first Indian who decided that there was not just competence in India but capabilities that were never tested, strengths that were never measured and intellectual heft that was never captured. With that in mind, it was Ratan Tata who changed the face of globalising Indian business, whether it was the fluttering flag at the Pierre Hotel in New York or whether it was Corus or whether it was Jaguar Land Rover.

In everything Ratan Tata faced a barrage of criticism. I still remember in the 1990s, just after taking over as chairman of Tata Sons, as he began to make all the satraps accountable, he faced an unbelievable amount of resentment. But that did not deter him.

Many, many years later Ratan Tata famously said, when questioned about Mamata Banerjee’s complete refusal to allow the Nano to be manu­factured at Singur: “I am the kind of man who stands in a particular place, and you whip out a gun, you either shoot me or you move away but I won’t budge.”

I still remember the many, many times we travelled togeth­er and his childlike inquisitiveness, his desire to play unbeliev­able pranks, and his constant ability to accept people for who they were and not for what they were. And that is important in today’s world because you need industrialists who inspire, you need industrialists who are wealth creators, but most im­portantly you need industrialists who are nation-builders. If I were to ever define Ratan Tata as a human being, my definition would be here is a man or here was a man who continued to pass every single day of his life with only one avowed convic­tion that there is much goodness in people, and we need to be able to extract that goodness, we need to be able to amplify that goodness, and we need to be able to make that goodness work.

To that end, Ratan Tata did so much, be it in the field of education, be it in the field of healthcare, be it in the field of women or gender equality.

It was he who started the second cycle of training for wom­en which was an unimaginable thing in those days when you knew there wasn’t too much of a discussion on gender but that was who Ratan Tata was. He saw tomorrow and he recognised that tomorrow came with its risks today but he had the courage, he had the fortitude and, most importantly, he had the willpower to see it through.

Many a time I have been asked what is that one compel­ling quality of Ratan Tata that makes him stand out and that quality will always remain an inquiring mind with the ability to get things done, and there was no one better than Ratan Tata at getting things done. If it was about finding out basic care requirements, he would get into the details of even equip­ment for Tata Cancer Centers.

On a personal note, Ratan Tata was my third parent. When my wife Lakshmi and I got married, he hosted a dinner and invited Lakshmi and me. After the dinner I had asked Lakshmi: What do you feel? And she turned around and said: You’re perhaps the son he never had. But did he make a fuss? Never. Was he ever intrusive? No. But I always had the sense and the feeling that if I ever needed advice, if I needed dispas­sionatecommentaryontheworld, andifIneededtogetmyown anchoring, there would be no better person than Ratan Tata.

Which is why when our daughter Gayatri was born four years ago, the first ever trip she made to Mumbai was to meet Ratan Tata. And being a very private and reticent person, it wasn’t often that Ratan Tata was found in the company of children. But I still remember the way he played with Gayatri. And more recently, two months ago, Gayatri, Lakshmi and I again spent time with him. And the way he was playing with her, the way he remembered all her shenanigans, the manner in which he took care of her, the way he organised the high tea were so touching.

And that is where greatness comes in. Greatness is great­ness when least expected. Humility is not a badge of honour. It is an integral part of your DNA. Which is why I also believe that when I look back at the time I spent with Ratan Tata, the enormous pain that he went through be­tween 2012 and 2016, I was there, a witness to how much an­guish he experienced because he had made a wrong choice. But then Ratan Tata was not the kind who would sit and whine. He made those corrections. And today the House of Tata is run by someone that Ratan Tata chose, believed in and continued to mentor. Which is why N Chandrasekaran, as chairman of Tata Sons, will ensure that the legacy of Ratan Tata never gets tarnished and continues in the tradi­tion of the 154-year-old House of Tata.

As I write this, tears come to my eyes, not because I have lost a friend or mentor or someone I had always looked up to. Tears come to my eyes because I believe India is much the poorer. Hu­manity has lost its most formidable champion. Animals have lost their biggest supporter. And the world has lost humanism of a rare kind, the kind that we have never experienced and that we may never experience for centuries to come. When the history of our times is written, Ratan Tata will not stand out for what he did in business or what he did in philanthropy or what he did with planes and cars, with dogs and other animals. His­tory will judge him for how he embraced humanism, dignity and decency. In every way, Ratan Tata redefined what decency is and how it should be. And for that, we will be eternally grate­ful. I know when he enters the gates of heaven, there will be a lot of furry friends and there will be the angels.

But I can assure you that Ratan Tata will be back, busy at work, changing perhaps the design of those heavenly rooms or trying to once again become an auto mechanic. And I wish the heavens well because Ratan Tata may have left this planet, but he will never leave our hearts and our minds. Such has been the impact of this remarkable human being.

About The Author

Suhel Seth

Suhel Seth is Managing Partner of Counselage India and can be reached at suhel@counselage.com

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