Tales of a timeless institution

#Tata Stories:40 Timeless Tales to Inspire You

Harsih Bhat

Penguin Random House

Pages 224

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Seema Pathela Sachdeva

“No success or achievement in material terms is worthwhile, unless it serves the needs or interests of the country and its people, and is achieved by fair and honest means.”

These words have been extracted from a memorable letter that JRD Tata wrote in 1965 in response to a query from Kolkata-based KC Bhansali on the guiding principles that governed his life. The letter is extraordinary not because it was in reply to an ordinary request from a schoolteacher but because it is these very principles that have inspired generations of Tata Group.

For every Indian, the name Tata is synonymous with the history and growth of the country, the two at times seeming inseparable. The words ‘Make in India’ have become fashionable in today’s times but it was visionaries from the Tata Group for whom this was the only way to take the country on way to progress. Setting up the country’s first steel plant, first airlines (Tata Airlines later became Air India), first cancer hospital, first silk farm, first Indian car, world’s slimmest watch, one of the world’s fastest supercomputers, first centre for performing arts, setting up the Indian Institute of Science, besides many other firsts were what helped Tata’s join hands in nation building.

Be it with starting a pension gratuity fund for employees, a crèche at the Empress Mills, or making a provision for accident claim fund in times when employee welfare schemes were unheard of, people came foremost in Jamsetji’s vision.

Using anecdotes, Harish Bhat brings alive incredible and heartwarming stories such as how Jamsetji Tata successfully convinced Charles Page Perin, world’s best consulting engineer, to start a steel factory in an underdeveloped country in 1902, how ethics and morals came foremost in a flying competition that led to a lifelong friendship between JRD and Aspy Engineer, how Dorabji and Meherbai’s ‘jubilee diamond’ saved the Tata Group, the challenges that came Ratan Tata’s way when he set out to make India’s first indigenous car, etc.

The book is littered with vignettes that fill one with amusement, for instance, JRD Tata’s toilet roll inspection in the airlines, astronaut Kalpana Chawla carrying a photograph of the patriarch’s inaugural mail flight on her first mission into space or the Tata Patter puncturing innumerable egos of MPs, ministers and Tata directors with its sarcasm.

While the 40 insightful stories take you down memory lane into the world of the legendary Tatas like Jamsetji Tata, Dorabji Tata, JRD Tata, Lady Meherbai Tata, these also pay a tribute to many illustrious names associated with the Tata Group like Sumant Moolgaokar, Nani Palkhivala, Darbari Seth, Russi Mody, Xerxes Desai, Nevill Vintcent, Booby Kooka and Dr John Matthai.

The simple, moving stories of great teams, men as well as women, are proof that corporate tales can be interesting bedtime fables too, those that can inspire the coming generations.