Ratan Tata Birthday: Ratan Tata Love Story

First of all, happy birthday to Ratan Tata sir! Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus, Ratan Tata had revealed some lesser known details about himself on the popular Humans of Bombay page on Facebook published on February 12, 2020.

The industrialist, who is also known for his philanthropic work, revealed that he fell in love with someone he wanted to marry when he was working at an architecture firm in Los Angeles right after college .

Tata credits his move into architecture to his grandmother, stating that it was because of her that he had the courage to change his major from mechanical engineering to architecture which got him a job in LA.

Tata calls the two years in LA a ‘great time’, as the weather was beautiful, he had his own car and a job he loved. However, because his grandmother, who practically raised him, was unwell and he had not visited her in seven years, he decided to move back to India for the time being.

Tata had assumed that the woman he loved would come with him to India and they would marry. But due to Indo-China war in 1962, his parents refused and the relationship broke down. Since then Tata has remained unmarried.

“I had a happy childhood, but as my brother and I grew up, we had to deal with a lot of ragging and personal trouble because of our parents’ divorce, which was not as common in those days as it is today. . But my Grandma brought us up in every way. Soon after my mom remarried, boys at school started talking all kinds of things about us – persistently and aggressively. But our grandmother raised us at all costs It taught me to maintain dignity, a value that has stayed with me to this day. This included walking away from situations we otherwise would have fought against.
I still remember, after WW2, she took me and my brother to London for summer vacations. There the values were actually marked. She used to tell us, ‘Don’t say it’ or ‘Shut up about that’ and right there, ‘dignity above all else’ is really embedded in our mind.

And she’s always been there for us. Now it is difficult to say who is right or wrong. I wanted to learn to play the violin, my father insisted on the piano. I wanted to go to college in the US, he insisted on the UK. I wanted to become an architect, they insisted on me becoming an engineer. If it weren’t for my grandmother, I would not have ended up at Cornell University in America. It was because of him that even though I enrolled for Mechanical Engineering, I changed majors and graduated with a degree in Architecture. My father was upset and a little resentful, but I was finally my own, independent person in college, and it was my grandmother who taught me that even having the courage to speak up could be soft and dignified.

After college, I got a job at an architecture firm in LA, where I worked for two years. It was a great time – the weather was lovely, I had my own car and I loved my job. It was in LA that I fell in love and almost got married. But at the same time I had decided to go back at least temporarily as I was away from my grandmother who was not keeping well for about 7 years. So I came back to meet her and thought that the person I want to marry would come to India with me, but due to the Sino-Indian War of 1962, her parents did not agree to her going ahead, and the relationship broke up.”

Ratan Tata’s words