‘Ratan Tata was my mother’s favourite— Hands down,’ says sister Shireen Jejeebhoy

“We were very close,” said half-sister Shireen Jejeebhoy. Mint. “He (Ratan Tata) was always supportive, cracking jokes on us and asking for support from time to time. We had a deep love and respect for each other. Ratan gave us so much love and support. He was my mother’s favorite person, for sure.”

Shireen and Tata’s other half-sister, Deanna, expressed sadness over the split among Tata Trusts’ board of trustees and the resulting dismissal of Mehli Mistry.

family roots

Ratan Tata, 86, who died on October 9 last year, was unmarried. He is survived by his brother Jimmy, half-sisters Shireen, 73, and Deanna, 72, and half-brother Noel, who turns 68 in December.

Ratan Tata and Jimmy Tata were born to Naval Tata and Soonoo Commissariat. Their mother later married Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy and had three daughters: Shireen, Deanna and Geeta Jejeebhoy.

The current chairman of Tata Trusts, Noel Tata, is Naval Tata’s son from his second marriage to Simone Dunoyer.

Geeta Jejeebhoy, who had Down syndrome, died years ago.

Shireen is a demographer, social scientist and founder of Aksha Center for Equity and Prosperity, a Mumbai-based non-profit organization working on women’s empowerment and gender equality. He previously worked at the International Population Institute in Mumbai and the World Health Organization.

Shireen completed her undergraduate degree in sociology at Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, in 1973, and received her doctorate in demography from the University of Pennsylvania in 1979.

Not much has been determined about Deanna other than the fact that she works for nonprofits and focuses on providing housing and care to poor seniors. For more than two decades, much of his work has focused on people with Down syndrome, autism, and mild spastic disorders. Between 1994 and 2001, he served as program advisor to Sri Ratan Tata Trust, one of the Tata Trusts’ principal charities.

Ratan Tata appointed Shireen, Deanna, his close confidant Mehli Mistry and Darius Khambata, a lawyer and trustee of Tata Trusts, as executors of his will.

Inside mint After interacting with Shireen and Deanna, it was revealed that Ratan Tata has never supported his family members serving on the board of Tata Trusts.

“He (Ratan) never did that,” Deanna said when asked if she wanted them to join Tata Trusts. “He took great care to ensure that his decisions were never influenced by personal relationships. I was once associated with the Sir Dorabji Tata Foundation. It was not Ratan who appointed me many years ago. On the contrary, it was Jamshed Bhabha who insisted. ‘I am the chairman and you should join,’ he said. I said Ratan might not like that. ‘No,’ said Mr. Bhabha. ‘I am the chairman and I want you to join.'”

Shireen and Deanna wrote in a joint tribute in the November 2024 issue of Horizons, Tata Trusts’ in-house magazine, that Rata Tata “took great pride in doing the right thing” and that this was reflected in his “personal life” as well.

Like Ratan Tata and his half-brother Jimmy Tata, Shireen and Deanna did not marry. And like their half-siblings, both the sisters are dog lovers and even took one of Ratan Tata’s closest friends with them.

“He (Ratan) had two cubs named Tito and Tango,” Shireen recounted. “They were adorable together when they were little, but when they were about a year old they started having terrible fights. He tried everything – even brought in a dog therapist, tried different approaches – but nothing worked. Eventually he was told the only real solution was to separate them, and he couldn’t stand it,” Shireen said.

“Around the same time, our dog died. He asked us to adopt Tango, which we did. Tango has been a treasure to us ever since.”