Ratan Tata says his grandmother taught him to retain his dignity at all costs

Tata Group Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata and his brother had a happy childhood but faced personal discomfort as they grew older due to their parents' divorce. According to a Facebook post of Humans of Bombay, a social media-based group, Ratan Tata said that after his mother got remarried, other boys at his school said all sorts of things, that too “constantly and aggressively”.

The former Tata chairman said that his grandmother taught him to retain dignity at all costs, a value that’s stayed with him until today. The 82-year-old industrialist further added that his grandmother helped him walk away from the situations which otherwise he would have fought back against.

Tata talked about his days in London where his grandmother took him and his brother after World War II for summer holidays. In London, his grandmother taught the brothers when to keep quiet to keep the dignity intact and it got embedded in their minds.

He opened up about his relationship with his father who was 'quite upset' with him at a point in his life. The 82-year-old philanthropist also mentioned how he mostly had varied opinions with his father, Naval Tata. The former chairman of Tata sons shed light on the conflicting father-son relationship in a Facebook post by Humans of Bombay. 

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Tata further adds that even though it is 'difficult now' to mention who was right or wrong, but he recalls how he wanted to learn how to play the violin but his father insisted on piano, or how he wanted to go to an American college but Naval insisted on British college. The businessman even had varied views on the choice of profession and mentioned that he was interested in studying architecture but his father wanted him to become an engineer. 

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'Almost got married in LA'

However, there was a 'fair bit of rancour', as Tata switched his majors and graduated with a degree in architecture even though he was enrolled in an engineering college. He further credited his grandmother for managing to study at Cornell University in the United States. He recalls how he 'was finally on his own' after landing a job in an architecture firm in Los Angeles where he even worked for two years.

He talked about his life in the American city and said that 'it was in Los Angeles that he fell in love and almost got married'. He also mentioned that he had to move back to India as his grandmother wasn't keeping too well and the person he wanted to marry, her parents 'weren't okay' with her making the move because of the 1962 Indo-China war.

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