Krishna
This book is the biography of JRD Tata, who is the captain of industry in India. No doubt he was a farsighted man, developing the company he inherited into a top firm in India. He also managed his companies adroitly in the midst of post Independence India, where the government was committed to socialism, autarky and throttling of independent
industry. The companies he started with great risk and perseverance were, upon becoming successful, were taken over by Indian Government with almost casual disdain, and with little recompense, despite his strong links to the top echelons of political hierarchy: Jawaharlal Nehru, the first and arguably the most revered Prime Minister of India was a personal friend. So was his daughter, Indira Gandhi, who straddled the political scene of India like a Colossus many years later.
He was also far ahead of his times in running the company: when feudal loyalty was expected of employees and bosses ran their companies like personal fiefdoms, he was farsighted enough to set up the companies in a professional manner, with professional managers and gave them full freedom.
Which is why, this book is such a disappointment. Written by their ‘Poet Laureate’ or ‘House Author’ RM Lala, it is a wide eyed, one sided, fully complimentary narration of the story. Rather like the Press in authoritarian countries where all manner of dissent is not tolerated, any whiff of unsavoury or even unpleasant aspects of the story are carefully edited out, and the story is whitewashed to look like a never changing happy story. In order to “prove” that the book is an unbiased account, they make great virtue of admitting that JRD Tata was in favour of the despicable emergency period in India where democracy was briefly suspended by Indira Gandhi.
If you have the IQ of a six year old child, you will find this book interesting. It even reads in part like the ‘Run Jane Run; See Jane Run’ style.
Tantalizing tidbits of controversy can be sensed behind this whitewashed saccarine sweet story. For instance, Suzanne or ‘Sooni’ as the Tatas renamed her, JRD Tata’s mother, is an interesting character. Did she hate moving to India? Did she force RD Tata, after a few years of marriage, to move back to Paris, where she could be comfortable? Was there a huge rift between the two which was varnished out of the story? Did Tata regret marrying Thelly Tata?
Was his brother, Darab Tara, the Black Sheep of the family?
As humble as he seems, his megalomaniacal tendencies come to the fore sometimes when he feels snubbed; no word of it ever makes into the story.
This book could have been so much more. Being a hagiography instead of a candid biography, it ends up being a bore, and therefore a waste of time.
I think that for the few tidbits it contains, it deserves a 1/10
— Krishna