Ratan Tata rewinds his life on FB: talks of his parents’ divorce, grandma’s love, and ‘almost getting married’

Ratan Tata is the latest honcho of India Inc to have entered the world of social media and digital platforms. Some three odd months ago, the business tycoon made his Instagram debut and now has 1.1 million followers. The Indian industrialist recently spoke to the Facebook page ‘Humans of Bombay’ and gave a no-holds-barred account of his life as a young boy in Los Angeles.
In the first of the three-part series, Tata spoke about a plethora of issues, from growing up in LA and his complex relationship with his father, to his late grandmother and the courage she imbued in him.

Tata began by talking about the ‘discomfort’ he and his brother had to face because of their parents’ divorce. “I had a happy childhood, but as my brother and I got older, we faced a fair bit of ragging and personal discomfort because of our parents’ divorce, which in those days wasn’t as common as it is today. But my grandmother brought us up in every way,” wrote the top industrialist.

Tata’s parents, Naval Tata and Sooni, got separated when he was young. He was then raised by his grandmother, Navajbai.


The industrialist also spoke about the complicated relationship between him and his father. “It’s difficult now to say who’s 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 be an architect, he insisted on me becoming an engineer. If it weren’t for my grandmother, I wouldn’t have ended up at Cornell University in the US”, wrote Tata.

Tata said that his grandmother taught him that the courage to speak up can be soft and dignified, instead of being rough and loud.

What’s more? Tata also gave some insight into his love life. The former chairman of Tata sons said that he fell in love and ‘almost got married’.

“But at the same time I had made the decision to move back at least temporarily since I had been away from my grandmother who wasn’t keeping too well for almost 7 years. So I came back to visit her and thought that the person I wanted to marry would come to India with me, but because of the 1962 Indo-China war her parent’s weren’t okay with her making the move anymore, and the relationship fell apart,” he further added.

Needless to say, the netizens had an eye-opening experience seeing Ratan Tata at his candid best.