How the Biography came to be?
Ratan Tata was an extremely reticent man. He was most uncomfortable speaking about his
achievements and became a shrinking violet when someone praised him. And when somebody did, “he
muttered, “oh shucks,” and if the compliments continued, he would bite his lips and turn cherubic out of
embarrassment.”
Getting a man of his nature to talk about himself for the biography was nearly an impossible task. But
he
relented because he had, at a weak point, agreed, and as a man who never went back on his word,he stuck
to it.
It happened like this:
“Then on a visit to Mumbai with my son, George Thomas, who is in the Indian Foreign Service, in early
2018, I took the chance to call Ratan and tell him that we were in town and for my son, it would be an
honour to see him in person. He replied, ‘If you have the time, both of you come over for dinner.’
My son was cock-a-hoop about the prospects of meeting Ratan. That evening, the two of them spoke for
around three hours. I listened silently as he gave my son snapshots of his extraordinary life journey.
When it was over, overwhelmed by what I had heard, my irrepressible urge to know more, and with an equal
eagerness for the world to know his life story, I asked Ratan, ‘Have you ever considered writing your
autobiography?’ He replied, ‘I can’t do it, you may think of it, should you choose to.’ Thus began an
effort to write the story of one of the most celebrated personages whose life holds many inspiring
lessons for future generations.”
