A promise kept: Ex-army officer recalls Ratan Tata's generosity

Mumbai: As a young army officer posted at the Maharashtra and Gujarat Area headquarters in 1992, Col Vinayak Supekar (Retd) often used to meet Ratan Tata at the United Services Club in Mumbai's Colaba area on the latter’s walks.

The former army officer is crestfallen that he will no longer hear that familiar voice calling him “Hi Captain”. He was then a Captain, posted as the aide-de-camp (ADC) to the then General Officer Commanding of M&G Area, Major General B G Shivley.

“Vijay Bisht, son of my then colleague in M&G Area HQ Lt Col B S Bisht had sustained severe leg injuries after falling from a horse and I came to know that he was looking for a job,” Col Supekar said.

“On one of the walks at the onset of monsoon, I mentioned to Sir (Ratan Tata) that the son of a fellow army officer was handicapped below the waist and needed a job,” he said. Tata said the needful will be done, he added.

“The next morning, Vijay got a call from Bombay House, Tata Group’s headquarters in south Mumbai, asking him to report for duty in the administration section,” Col Supekar, now settled in Pune, told PTI.

The former army officer also recalled another incident narrated to him by an army veterinary doctor about Ratan Tata’s humility.

“There was this army veterinary clinic in Colaba and Ratan Tata used to take his dog there for regular checkups. Once, a fellow army officer saw Tata patiently waiting in a queue for his turn. The officer, a friend of mine, asked him to bypass the queue but he politely declined,” Col Supekar said.

It must have been a memorable moment for the veterinarian to see such humility from someone who had just a year earlier taken over the Tata Group’s mantle from his uncle JRD Tata, he said.

The former army officer also spoke of meeting Ratan Tata and JRD Tata at an event in Raj Bhavan in Mumbai on January 26, 1992 and being regaled by JRD about his passion for flying.

The Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons and recipient of India’s second highest civilian honour, Padma Vibhushan, Ratan Tata passed away on Wednesday at Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital. He was 86 years old.