Remembering Ratan Tata: When Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus ‘almost got married’ in LA

On October 9, 2024, India Inc.’s heart stopped for a moment. Tata Sons Honorary Chairman Ratan Tata passed away at the age of 86 after contributing to India’s corporate success for decades.

A year later, the gap still remains.

The chairman of Tata Sons has dedicated his life to making India better through his contributions to both technology and philanthropy. Ratan Tata never got married and in a retrospective interview, he shared the reason why he didn’t get married.

‘We almost got married’

After completing his education at Cornell University in the USA, Ratan Tata joined an architectural firm in Los Angeles. That’s when he fell in love, he told Humans of Bombay in a 2020 interview.

“After college, I took a job at an architecture firm in Los Angeles and worked for two years. It was a great time; the weather was nice, I had my own car, and I loved my job. I fell in love in Los Angeles and almost got married,” she said in the interview.

However, Ratan Tata had to return to India as he was away from his pillar of support grandmother, who had not been doing well for almost seven years.

“So I went back to visit him and thought that the person I wanted to marry would come to India with me, but due to the Indo-China war in 1962, his parents were no longer willing for him to make this move and their relationship broke down,” he shared.

Ratan Tata about his grandmother

In the interview, he shared that Ratan Tata had a special bond with his grandmother, who supported him through good times and bad times, especially when he was bullied during his parents’ divorce.

“Our grandmother taught us to maintain our dignity at all costs, a value that remains with me to this day. It involved walking away from these situations that we would otherwise resist,” he said.

The late industrialist shared how he would support himself, whether it was related to his hobbies or his studies.

“And she was always on our side. It’s hard to say who is right or wrong anymore. I wanted to learn to play the violin, my father insisted on the piano. I wanted to go to university in the USA, he insisted on England. I wanted to be an architect, and he insisted that I be an engineer. If it weren’t for my grandmother, I wouldn’t have been able to enter Cornell University in the USA,” he said.

“Though I enrolled in mechanical engineering, I changed my major and graduated in architecture. My father was quite upset and had some resentment, but eventually I became an independent person in my own right in college, and it was my grandmother who taught me that the courage to speak openly can also be gentle and dignified,” added Ratan Tata.