My interaction with the public-spirited Mr Ratan Tata

To my great surprise a gentleman turned up at my office within a week, and introduced himself as GM for Tata Motors for Gujarat, saying he had been instructed by his Chairman Mr Ratan Tata to do whatever possible to upgrade the auto related component of Gujarat ITIs.

Delighted, I said he could train the Gujarat master trainers at Tata Motors at Pune. In a day or two he came back to say that his company had agreed to train all the 45 master trainers at their factory in Pune. Sure enough in the next three months all 45 of them were trained at Tata Motors Pune in two batches for 21 days. Not only were they trained they were given copies of TATA standard operating procedures for seamless maintenance of Tata trucks. In addition the company gifted Gujarat two engines for ongoing training of master trainers. All this at no cost to the state. Needless to add the master trainers were delighted and felt greatly empowered.

Years later the GOG decided to bestow Gujarat Gaurav Award on Sh Ratan Tata, at one of the vibrant Gujarat functions. As an officer on duty I had an opportunity to meet him. So I respectfully went up to him and reminded him of the incident and thanked him profusely. He gave me a little hug and said, ‘Son you did not ask for anything for yourself, it was for public good, so we had to chip in.’ Such was the great man.

We have lost an inspirational icon and a great son of India. I feel a deep personal sense of grief.

(Dr Amarjit Singh is a retired IAS officer from Gujarat cadre who has held posts in the state and central governments)