O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN!

Despite his reticence and self-effacing nature, Ratan Tata left an indelible mark on every life he touched. By Christabelle Noronha

As I sit down to write this tribute to our beloved Ratan N Tata, I am filled with grief and a sense of nostalgia that sweeps over the 25 years I worked closely with him. During our many interactions we discussed all manner of things: music and books, pets and people, and how we need to take responsibility for our actions, whether at the workplace or in our personal lives.

At the end of every one of our meetings, the one constant takeaway was that whatever we do should positively impact the world around us, be it employees, customers, shareholders or, most importantly, the poor and less privileged. A subject we spoke about a lot was our shared love for dogs. Mr Tata hurt deeply at the plight of stray dogs, especially those abandoned, abused and often left to die on the streets with no care or compassion.

At one of these meetings, we spoke about the need for more animal hospitals in Mumbai. His immediate response was, “Where do you get land in Mumbai for that?” But this set the tone for a thought that was brewing in his mind for a long time. A couple of months later, he asked me to visit the Cornell University Veterinary Specialists hospital in Ithaca, New York, and the Veterinary Medical Center in Minnesota, where Tango — the German shepherd so dear to his heart — had undergone medical treatment. 

By then Mr Tata already knew what the veterinary hospital should look like if we could find suitable space. Then began the search for land, architects, government approvals and plenty more. After a long search, painstaking planning and work, and a host of hiccups, the Tata Trusts’ Small Animal Hospital at Mahalaxmi in Mumbai opened its doors earlier this year.

Running a global business empire was but one of Mr Tata’s many concerns. The world saw him often enough with the famous and the powerful — political leaders, industry titans and royalty — but he always made time, in the midst of all this, for ordinary folks, not least employees from the various Tata companies he visited. These employees would inevitably be in awe when seeing him up close and he, courteous to a fault, never disappointed them.

When working with Tata Sons, the internal communications portfolio was among the several responsibilities my team and I managed. There were more than 100 companies in the group back then and our agenda was to help in bringing employees together through a common platform. The big question was how? 

We put together our collective thoughts and launched Tata World, the group intranet that every Tata employee across the world has access to. But what next, because not many employees were logging in? That’s when we had a eureka moment. A competition was launched for the children of Tata employees, with drawing, painting and creative writing on the menu.

The first year of the competition, 2004, attracted some 8,000 entries. It was thrill enough that the winners received certificates signed by Mr Tata — one parent from NatSteel in Thailand said he would frame the citation and keep it as a family treasure — but greater still was the honour of receiving the award from Mr Tata himself. It was a sight to behold: our tall and strapping chairman virtually kneeling to hand winners’ certificates to five-year-olds.

My fondest memory of Mr Tata, though, is of crafting and recording his annual new year’s message to Tata employees. Most often these messages were recorded at Lake House in Pune, where Mr Tata spent a few days each December with Tito and Tango, his beloved pets. Those moments with Mr Tata, as relaxed as I have ever seen him, were most endearing.

In 2012, when Mr Tata was on the cusp of stepping down as chairman of Tata Sons, my team and I were wracking our brains trying to think up what we could do to mark his years at the helm of the Tata family. There was no way we could go ahead and bring out a publication dedicated to him without his knowledge.

Mr Tata was not a person too fond of surprises. So, on June 22, 2012, I wrote him a short note requesting his permission to go ahead. When I returned from church the next morning, I saw a reply from him. “Okay,” he said and I was ecstatic. We brought out this special publication and he received it with grace and gratitude. A handwritten letter followed soon after and all of us who had worked on what was an extended tribute, were over the moon.

In 2018, I decided to quit Tata Sons and the world of business. I was not sure about what to do next. But one thing was certain: I wanted to continue my association with Mr Tata. That’s when he invited me to join the Tata Trusts. My initial response was that I knew nothing about the development sector. He heard me out and then asked me to continue doing “what you are best at”.

That’s how Horizons came into being. Mr Tata was closely involved with the publication from the beginning, suggesting ideas, stories and people we could feature, even choosing the name for the magazine.

On July 29, 2018, the inaugural edition of Horizons was out for everyone to read. Two days previously, I had handed Mr Tata a copy of the magazine. “I hope you like it,” I said. “I hope so, too,” he replied. At the end of 10 minutes of going through the publication, from first page to last, he said, “You have got it right.”

Mr Tata continued to support, guide and mentor us to the last, complimenting us on the people-centric approach that Horizons has always concentrated on. That was in keeping with his character and his thinking. People and the human element were forever central to his thinking, passionate as he was about sustaining the Tata legacy of improving the quality of life of those less fortunate: the marginalised and the underserved, the deserving and the needy.   

I have heard Mr Tata say on more than one occasion that “we have to be kind, caring and compassionate in our dealings with the people who cross our path.” In later years, he would feel rather helpless that these attributes he valued so much were disappearing.

As the Tata Trusts and the Tata group continue their journey, our endeavour at Horizons will remain what it always has been — to craft stories that highlight the concerns and circumstances of the communities we seek to help. That would, I think, be the best way to stay true to the ideals that Mr Tata espoused and abided by during the course of his remarkable life.

I would like to believe that Ratan Tata, somewhere out there in the wide blue yonder, is watching over us.