In a remarkable conversation centred on the biography of Ratan Naval Tata authored by Dr Thomas Mathew—a retired IAS officer, corporate strategist, defence analyst, and photographer—the gathering transformed into a celebration of the life of this personnalité extraordinaire.
The overcast Thursday in Kochi witnessed Ratan Naval Tata like never before, capturing the life he stitched across the fissures of a broken family, of not having bonds on record yet bonding in heart, living in the embers of a profound love. Dr Mathew took to the dais unravelling what he called “the complexities of a simple man,” and the crowd that entered with the bitter aftertaste of Tata’s passing, left seeing Tata—an “accident of civilization,” one of a kind, yet a piece of so many lives—in a different light.
The boy in the Tata palace: Fragments of a childhood
Considering that his parents decided to separate during a time that was hostile to the very idea of divorce, Tata was, in fact, “out-classed” in school and ostracized for the same—Dr Mathew narrated—which also amounted to a lot of internal trauma in little Ratan, who went into a cocoon. Tata’s life was moulded by his grandmother, Lady Navajbai Tata, who instilled in him an indomitable spirit and dignity, the author of 'Ratan Tata: A Life' said.
Recounting Tata’s early childhood, the role of his parents and the shadow of a broken marriage would also put into perspective perhaps why Ratan Tata and his siblings chose to dodge matrimony themselves. The author also noted that when he pointed out to Tata that he was perhaps apprehensive about marriage because of his traumatic childhood, Tata did not accept it and merely said that he would have to think about the question.
Dr Mathew’s words also reflected that his research covered Tata’s Cornell days in detail and the man’s passion for flying, which he also shared with J.R.D. Tata, who was more of a father figure to him.
Beloved(s): The tale of three great loves and a greater love
Dr Mathew also mentioned Tata’s “four great loves,” none of which materialized, and towering over all of it was the singular Tata-Jones love story. It was at his first job for Emmons in Los Angeles that Tata met his first love, Caroline Jones, who the bureaucrat dubbed a “stunner of a lady even at eighty-one.” However, the flames of this love were extinguished by the Indo-China war and the man himself having to return to India to care for his ailing grandmother and to fulfil his promise of streamlining his efforts to uphold the values represented by Tatas. Later, Caroline married another man who was almost like Ratan Tata.
In retrospect, one might wonder: Could Caroline have been Ratan’s chance to break the cycle? One will never know, but you cannot help feeling as though you’re caught in a love story that never bloomed, left stifled in the place of the lovers.
The other serious love affairs of Tata’s life included an American woman who wanted Tata to move to the United States, a Parsi woman who wanted to control his life, and a stunning Gujarati woman who was almost half his age but walked out on him for her ex-boyfriend.
Thomas Mathew also added that despite all, the embers of the first love always remained bright and strong.
Of numbers and silences: Top-lines speak what Tata never did
Even when addressing “the business”, the biographer’s concerns were primarily ethical—what made Tatas different from other business houses in India. The author also posited impressive analyses of top-line figures from 1991, when Tata took over, to the day he hung his boots, amounting to 1742 per cent growth. However, the author pointed out that the “embarrassingly polite man” never acknowledged nor talked about any of this, and was quick to give credit to how much the others had contributed.
Dr Mathew also revealed astonishing numbers and accomplishments that he called “unparalleled” across the globe, even drawing a comparison between Jack Welch—former CEO of General Electric—and Tata to establish the same.
He also took on the questions of NANO, frugal engineering, and the car being the harbinger of a revolution. But what struck the crowd throughout the discussion is the fact that Tata was a leader who unravelled an issue for its social angle, converting it into a commercial decision (a social need converted into a business requirement). Dr Mathew stressed that Tata embodied the idea that one could accomplish so much by abiding by ethics, something that others achieved by abandoning them.
The ‘prankster’, the patriot and the cook’s daughter
Tata’s pranks date back to his Cornell days, when he switched the engine off mid-flight to scare his co-passengers. The grandee continued his funny antics until his last days, with Dr Mathew eliciting laughter from the crowd by mentioning that Tata once gave him a blank check after losing a bet, but it was unsigned.
Above all, anecdotes of humility abounded the conversation specifically ones like Ratan Tata casually eating with his cook’s daughter or lunches at his house just being food from humble eateries across the street. In another context, he also mentioned how Tata was a fiercely patriotic person, yet once his patriotism came out in all its glory when he described his acquisitions at Cornell as “the empire striking back.”
One could never be satiated by Ratan Tata’s actions, which were so historic that they could never be fully captured. His light continues to grow through the impact that he had on people like Sunu Varghese, who, even after a decade could recount how his eyes welled up at her sorrow. Sunu Varghese shared her story of how her husband, Thomas, lost his life in the 26/11 attack and how Tata became a pillar of support for the family. This brought into light how Tata personally met with all families affected by the attack, at Hotel President, speaking with each one of them. Tata stitched colourful dreams into the broken souls and across broken homes. Yet what is most striking is that he was himself born into a broken home.
When all is said: responses and questions
Jacob Mathew, managing editor, Malayala Manorama, praised Dr Mathew’s book for encapsulating the fragrance of Tata’s greatness. His words reverberated with admiration for the “searching ability” brought out by the fine writer.
T.P. Sreenivasan, in the opening remarks, brought it all together in dubbing the work a “monumental book” about a “monumental person” penned by a “monumental author,” who, according to Sreenivasan, was careful not to let his persona shine through the pages of the biography and take centre stage. The former diplomat was all praise for the physical, intellectual, and financial heavy lifting done by the author and ascribed to it the title of “Book of the Year.” T.P. Sreenivasan also talked about the volume of the book, calling it “un-pickupable” in good humour. Both speakers lauded the effort in capturing, in all its complexity, this enigmatic and elusive persona.
The session was followed by interaction with the author, where one attendee quizzed him about a negative trait of Ratan Tata, to which the author pointed out that he was too reticent, never highlighting his accomplishments and trusted too easily. He assured that Tata was too good a man to interfere with the text and that NANO was never a failure but “a marketing blunder.”
At the end of the discussion, the crowd was de facto in consensus, about this exceptional man, but also with an unexpected sense of empathy for the unseen weight under the wings that carried so much.
