Rendezvous with Simi Garewal and Ratan Tata 1997

my guest tonight is from the select and rarified circle of India's men of Distinction his famous name carries a legend of achievement with Integrity as does the man himself ran Tata we first met at a time in our lives when we'd both returned from abroad and were both at the threshold of unknown worlds that lay ahead for him the world of Corporate Challenge for me the world of ceroid fantasy today the same ratan Tata stands tall as chairman of the tataa group Undisputed leader of Indian industry I feel a special pride and privilege to have a rendevu with the intensely private and immensely gracious R the world is rushing by so fast let's press the pause and make it last just let your thoughts your tree unfold let's talk of Love of tales Untold speak so I can see your soul speak so I see Ro then I want to thank you for accepting my invitation I know how media Loof you are so can I just say quite simply I'm honored by your presence thank you thank you s it's a pleasure to be here today do you remember when we first met long back you just come back from the US and after graduating in architecture and uh Structural Engineering was it correct yes is that what you had planned to do with your life to become an architect yes and in fact I worked in the US as an architect and as a structural engineer for a period of time after I graduated and had no intention of coming back so you were well settled there well I was not well settled but I was happily employed there and what happened my grandmother uh talked me into returning or rather I returned because uh she wanted me back this is Lady n my that's right that's right she was at that time getting quite old and I'd been very close to her my mother and father had divorced uh when we were quite my brother and I were quite young and and uh she brought us up so I was quite close to her and she wanted me back and so I came back for her or I would not have come yes I happily came back okay after a few months I remember you moved on to jamshedpur actually after 15 days I think of returning I was sent out to jamshedpur what was it like then uh seemed it seemed like everyone was concerned that I should not be treated differently so I was told to stay in in an apprentice hostel and I worked on the shop floor for 6 months in Telco and then for a couple of years in tsco on the shop floor I was attached to various production departments I was in the blast furnaces near the furnace in uh in the steel melting shops again knew every nook and cranny of of the Disco works it was terrible at that time but if I look back on it it's been a very worthwhile experience because I've uh spent years hand inand with workers I have uh mixed with them I have eaten in their cantens I have uh been attached to superintendents many of the people who are in management in tisco today remember those days when when this uh goofy young guy was uh walking the shop floors so actually the tataa name didn't bring any privileges did it no in fact I'd say it was a disadvantage here here was someone who just come in from Los Angeles being told that you will not take your car to jum you will go by bicycle and out of out of um a sense of rebellion I refused and I'd walk to work every day really so you those kinds of things they're looking back on on those years was a good thing did you at any time feel any regret what have I done I mean those lovely days in LA and and me I'm in the middle of this yeah I almost went back three times in my life what stopped you I I guess as time went on the uh the prospect my grandmother died in four five years after I while I was still in jumped for and uh the ties to remain here were less but I guess I guess as you get as you get involved you it becomes more difficult to pack a bag and move again did you ever put to use all the training that you had in in architecture and structure no not after I came back I I had the opportunity of uh designing and building a house for my mother MH uh which still stands and one house in Jamshed Port but that's about that's about all that's about it so you were 25 when you moved to Jamshed Port do you feel life has surprised you I mean did you know how it would turn out no no it was an experience it was both culturally an experience uh work-wise was an experience did you know where you were going no that's why I almost went back for seven eight years I just didn't know where I was going yeah so it has surprised you the way it's turned out hasn't it yes things started to change uh much later in life for me that it seemed to have a direction there seemed to be that you pushed a very long apprenticeship didn't you yes it seemed like an endless apprenticeship uh and and perhaps the change came when when I got involved with Nelco which was a small electronic company that nobody wanted to touch firefighting situation weren't you that's right so that was when things started to really become both challenging and interesting and that's when you started enjoying it and that's when I started enjoying it after that I never looked at going back what was it like working with Mr J detata I I just have to say one word it's wonderful was wonderful uh one looked at him first in my case with a certain degree of all M I have to say I didn't I I didn't know Jay in my younger days he's not directly related to you no no people have called him my cousin my uncle and so on but we were really not not related and I really first got to got to know him in while I was in Jam over our common interest in flying and I set up a flying Club at his behest in jam and that brought us a little closer together and as years went on we became closer mostly through the bond of flying okay and uh through his tremendous uh interest in new things new technology Electronics computers etc which gave us common ground to talk and and uh tremendous excitement over so many things of today's world yes and in those days in those days I can imagine I saw a completely different side from because I'd met him socially on a number of occasions found him very cly very generous in his praise but what I really enjoyed was you know we used to play games at a mutual friend's house and he was wonderful at Dam shad's I see that's that's a side I never saw we were in the beginning we were always an awe of him but within an hour or so he made us feel he was our he was a he was a wonderful human being lovely human qualities uh totally uh humble very self-facing yeah he never never would let anyone check him in when he flew he would always stand in line to at a check encounter that he drove his car home every evening he often drove himself to work in the morning and he was uh he was an Indian through and through he was a very very warm human being I I really got to know him and love him as as time went on when were you first aware that he had chosen you as his successor uh well Pro probably a few days before it happened how did he tell you well that's a little bit of a long story we were in Jump together uh for a function and I had to go to stutgart for some negotiations with Mercedes-Benz and when I came back I heard he'd had a heart problem and he was in breach Gandy hospital he was there a week and uh I'd see him every day and and then he was out on a Friday and the following Monday I I went to see him in the office and he'd always uh start meetings by saying well what's new okay and I said well Jay I've been seeing you every day there's nothing new since I saw you last and he said well I have something that's new that I want to tell you sit down and he said U what has happened to me in Jump sh was made me made me think that I need to step down and I've decided that you should take my place God and then uh there were a few days more and then he took it to the board that's on the 25th of March I don't remember the day but probably if if you say that's the day that's the day but people who were present at the at that meeting say they regretted not having a camera to record the events it was a moving uh experience can you can you take me back to that meeting somewhat well it it I I've heard many of my colleagues say that there was history that day because uh a apart from the fact that he was stepping down from a position he'd held for I don't know 40 50 years there was therefore a lot of emotion attached to his giving up this position in favor of someone but the history that and the emotion that everyone talks about is not that move he then reminisced through his years at that meeting okay and uh I can't reproduce any of of that emotionally or otherwise but that meeting went on which is like a an archival uh recount of of all his days in tata never his his own praise but just his experiences as he went through and uh there was history that day I think we all came out very moved I can imagine it was the end of an era the beginning of a new one that's right so what did you learn from him that you carry with you always what I learned from him perhaps and what I carry with me is a sense of justice which was always was prevalent you know he was always fair and just he always did what he considered to be the right thing irrespective of how difficult it was and he stood up for principles and he stood by people he stood by me when I was in in trouble in NCO so uh his value system his Simplicity his sense of justice were all things that I think have uh stayed with me and I hope I can emulate them even half as well as he was able to do through his life talking about this uh value system what I know of you and I what I remember best about you from those early years was was something that happened before you even met m i mean before you started working with Mr G tart so it was there in you in any case was the fact that if you said something R you always did it I mean in those days we were all very young and even if it boiled down to small things like you know you said if you said you'd phone you would phone if you said you'd write you wrote you always kept your word and I feel that that is an integral ATT attribute of your personality it's very important to you isn't it it is but I was I was dealing with someone who was in those in those days I looked upon as very attractive and and uh so it was I was also driven by that I can't say that I've I've been that Honorable in terms of keeping my word on all sorts of things but by and large I you generally do I generally do I I tend to not say things Loosely I try to live up to whatever I've said the commitments I've made after all these years I know that if if ran says it you can count on it well thank you that's that's a nice thing to hear but we all know that tars have always pleaded strictly by the rules very ethically has this slowed down the rate of progress do you think I think at times we have we have suffered we have paid a price if you might uh I think we've also gained a great deal of respect yes and uh what I would say and I've told many that there's something that is important to me and that is to go to bed at night or to wake up in the morning feeling that we have not uh sacrificed our principles and that we have not subordinated our values to some short-term materialistic aims and in some sort of perverse way you you as a group are respected because they they feel that well you will not do that when there is something that's uh that deals with the nation or there's a Calamity people turn to Tas yes and at other times uh unfortunately we're we feel we're discriminated against like qu when there issues which relate to uh question trible ethics projects that we feel we should get which we don't or or which we find for subjective reasons uh someone else uh steps in but all of that is forgotten when when there is something that no one else is willing to do then one turns to us and I think in a way that's that's an honor Rajiv Gandhi inherited a party which is almost as old as your company mhm and he said he found a lot of resistance to change within his party have you found that in your company oh yes very much so uh in fact much of my time goes in questioning the unquestion if you might of um trying to convince people that their needs to be changed when they don't agree most of our younger people would like to see change most of the elders would not like to see change with a few exceptions and uh in some cases you you you can be the champion of change in other cases you've got to take the unpleasant route of being autocratic and forcing change uh today what is your agenda P tatas we've set some goals we'd like to be a group that has revenues of over a 100,000 crores by the turn of the century or into the next Century right now uh I think we have a lot of consolidating to do and more importantly I think we have to be conscious of the community in which we in which we live a lot of uh emphasis has been given to the environment and our and making sure that we don't detract or or deteriorate the environment in which we are all our companies are very conscious of of uh being good corporate citizens if you might running such a huge conglomerate must be stressful at times rather it is but but it's uh it's something that you don't mind me feel so proud how do you unwind most of the unwinding in the last 10 12 years has been uh taking my dog for a run or just getting out and having a change of pace what sort of music do you like oh i' I've always been fond of all types of music love jazz I love classical music what about television do you watch television yeah quite a bit off late that's good and there's more variety to watch now so I watch about movies also via television I don't think I've been to a movie theater in ages but do you see any Hindi movies you can't help but see them on on television today I'd love to see the sight of R andada sitting watching a Hindi movie my Hindi is improved every since I can you remember any of the films that you've enjoyed no no they're also Violet there you know I I think there's more ketchup that's uh true that's uh spread in Hindi movies than than there are in all the restaurants in Bombay that I I am very irritating to be around when I watch television I'm very impatient and uh I watch four or five channels at the same time when you were very young you used to even then hate ostentatious displays of wealth and things like that and when you used to go to Campion school yeah in the family driven roles you used to shrivel up and die of embarrassment because you it wasn't the roles it was the Dage I remember oh okay um and it was my grandmother's car and it was a very old-fashioned car and she had it was one of these cars that where the driver sat it was open and the back was closed okay all right and big lights and and tires on the outside to me it was uh it was such an ostentatious vehicle that I would walk home when it came and I'd always ask her to send another car but not that one I think children don't like having the spotlight on them that's right is because Raj you also told me a when he was in darun and his grandfather the Prime Minister would visit he would be so embarrassed because the spotlight would be on him that he'd go and hide somewhere you know just not to be there people perceive you as being remote and recluse in a way it's not true is it I think it is true I think I I suffer from that why well I don't know it's it comes from you're in the office all day around a lot of people uh a lot of telephone calls and and there's some some uh sense of Serenity in in having a departure from that you remember when we when we first met many years ago walking on Beach and so on was a was a uh was something I I enjoy I still enjoy it yes and there's something in that Solitude a lot of thinking gets done and a lot of unwinding gets done in that process too but in those days you were not a loner but people say you are now yeah because I I think uh over time one becomes alone and uh the job makes you a little lonely do you trust people yes I think so people may disagree but I I think I do you tend to trust people make new friends easily do you have or do your friends tend to be from uh the earli days no many in fact I'm am very poor at keeping up friendships you could say that again without a wife without children a family what motivates you rather I don't know what motivates me but let me just stay with that for a minute that there many times I feel lonely at not having a wife or a family and and sometimes I long for it sometimes I enjoy the the freedom of of not having to worry about the feelings of someone else or the concerns of someone else and the at other times I it it gets very lonely I mean was the timing that uh yeah a whole series of whole series of things um timing my um absorption in work at that time um there very many things that came very close to getting married a few times and uh they didn't work out but there are as they say confinements and consolations absolutely absolutely so you must miss the consolations today yeah it's not too late oh it's never too late who are your Heroes I don't know one one hero I've always had who no longer lives is uh has been uh John Kennedy oh yes uh of course I was very much in the US at that time uh that person stands out still as very much my my hero at that time and continues to get me emotionally nostalgic about the days I that's true that I was there what makes you proud of being an Indian well I think uh I'm very proud of India I'm I'm proud to be an Indian I I love my country I feel proud of what we do I feel sad for what we don't do but uh I just have a great national pride I I uh feel this country can really go places I feel we're living at a very exciting point in this country's history we are very optimistic about where we are going or where we can go I hope we go there you know ran many years ago you wrote a letter to jata in which you said and I quote you set the highest standards of Integrity that I've ever seen in anyone in the manner in which you've conducted yourself and I think those very same words apply to you thank you I thank you so much for this at all thank you to great pleasure thank you la

Channel: SimiGarewalOfficial

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Keywords: Ratan, Tata, Rendezvous, Simi, Garewal

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Length: 25min 0sec (1500 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 15 2012