Tata Group Chairman Emeritus and one of India's most loved industrialists, Ratan Tata, passed away on Wednesday (October 9) evening. As soon as news came in that Ratan Tata breathed his last at Mumbai's Breach Candy Hospital, tributes poured in for the legendary businessman. Ratan Tata was one of the most recognisable and respected business leaders in India and across the globe. However, there is an interesting story about how Ratan Tata returned back to India from the US.
Ratan Tata in the interview with senior journalist Karan Thapar on the Face-To-Face (FTF) show recorded for the BBC, had narrated how he left it all back in Los Angeles and came back to India because his grandmother wanted him to. The interview was recorded in the year 2000 and Ratan Tata recounts events from his life with his charismatic charm and trademark humility.
"I love America and still do. I feel very much at home there. I had a good job, an exciting job in a city I loved, Los Angeles. Yes I had no intention to come back," Ratan Tata said in the interview.
"So what brought you back?" asked the interviewer, veteran journalist Karan Thapar.
"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," said Ratan Tata.
"Well I came back not necessarily thinking I would live the rest of my life here, I just came back because she wanted me back," said Ratan Tata.
"One of the things that happened that kept me back was being asked to take over NELCO. That was another challenge," said Ratan Tata about the 1971 incident when Thapar asked him what made him stay back in India.
Watch Ratan Tata describing how he returned back to India and his days in the US in detail from 05.36 to 6.58 in the interview.
In the insighful interview, Ratan Tata also went on to describe how Jamshedji Tata announced him as the succesor and chairman of Tata Group in 1991. The rest as they say, is history.
Ratan Tata's passing away was mourned by people and personalities from all walks of lives. Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde announced that the legendary industrialist would be cremated with full state honours.
