Meet Tata Sons’ first female director who shaped Ratan Tata’s life, for whom he left…

Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons and renowned philanthropist Ratan Tata passed away at the age of 86 on October 9. He had been admitted to Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai in serious condition. The visionary businessman leaves behind a remarkable legacy of humility and philanthropy. Tata undoubtedly transformed India’s industrial and philanthropic landscape. Though born with a silver spoon, Ratan Tata’s transformation from an architecture graduate to one of the country’s most respected businessmen was far from a cakewalk. Along this journey, he was inspired and deeply influenced by a woman who helped shape his extraordinary life. Let’s explore the story.
A Traumatic Childhood
Ratan Tata was born on 28 December 1937 in Bombay into a Parsi Zoroastrian family. He was the son of Naval Tata and Sooni Tata. He suffered a traumatic childhood after his parents got separated. During this traumatic time Ratan’s grandmother Navajbai Tata decided to take care of Ratan and his brother Jimmy.  Navajbai assumed control over the Tata Sons estate at the age of 41, after her husband’s death. She embodied the role of a loving guardian, imparting a mix of tender love and moral values in him.
When Ratan Tata Revealed The Woman Who Shaped His Personality
During an interview, Tata revealed that his grandmother shaped his personality. “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 and aggressively. But our grandmother taught us to retain dignity at all costs, a value that’s stayed with me until today,”  Humans of Bombay quoted Ratan Tata as saying.
Tata dedicated his life successes to his grandmother’s influence, who was instrumental in persuading him to return to India. He initially, dreamed of creating a life in Los Angeles after completing of his studies at Cornell University. In an older conversation, Ratan spoke of his deep affection for the United States, fostered since childhood. He claimed, “After graduation, I spent time in the US, working as an architect and a structural engineer. The idea of coming back to India never occurred to me. I was quite content, even though not completely settled yet in my job there,” in his conversation with Simi Grewal.
Ratan Tata said he led Los Angeles and came back to India for his grandmother, “My grandmother brought me back, she was old, she was ailing and she wanted to see me again and she appealed to me. In those days, even telephone calls were hard, you know you had to book a call and they weren’t an everyday thing and she appealed to me and it touched me so I went back,” he was quoted as saying to veteran journalist Karan Thapar in BBC interview.