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

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 saying “Hi captain!” referring to the time when he was a captain, posted as ADC (aide-de-camp) to then general officer commanding of the M&G area, Maj. Gen. 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,” Supekar said. “On one of our walks at the onset of monsoon, I mentioned to sir (Tata) that the son of a fellow Army officer was handicapped below the waist and needed a job,” he said. Tata said the needful would be done, he added.

“The next morning, Vijay got a call from Bombay House, the Tata Group headquarters in south Mumbai, asking him to report for duty in the administration section,” 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 officer saw Tata patiently waiting in queue for his turn. The officer, a friend of mine, asked him to bypass the queue but he politely declined,” 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 J.R.D. Tata, he said.

The former Army officer also spoke of meeting Ratan and J.R.D. Tata at an event in Raj Bhavan in Mumbai on 26 January 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 the Padma Vibhushan, Ratan Tata passed away on Wednesday at Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital. He was 86 years old.