Humility..

J.R.D.Tata was the pioneer in Indian Business field. Though

many of our generations may not have seen or met him, this
legend has left behind two things which we all know as
epitome of morality in business and they are the house of
TATAs and Air India. JRD as he was fondly called by each
and everyone, who knew him, was very humble and
compassionate besides being fair and honest in nature and
was known for these supreme qualities, though he was the
richest person in India about 2 or 3 decades before. Here
are two stories I came to know about – one from my father
and the other from one of our family friends in Goa.

JRD- the symbol of patience and humility:

My father was very young then and used to work for a

company with their office in New Marine Lines in South
Mumbai. That must be around 1979. He used to travel by bus
from Andheri (in North Mumbai) where he stayed, to his
office every day. One day while he was traveling, suddenly
the bus stopped and the passengers were told that there
was some kind of protest by the local people in that area
and they were not allowing any buses or cars to ply beyond
that point. The whole traffic had halted. Nothing moved.
There were a good number of protestors and that was a
strong force. No one knew when the traffic movement could
resume. My father got down from the bus and went to
nearby tailoring shop whose owner was known to him. He
called his office from the shop (mind you, there were no
mobiles then and one had to depend on landline phones) to
inform his superiors that he was going to get held up and
may not be able to reach his office on time. The shop owner
knowing my father well offered him a cup of hot tea. My
father just sat near the counter and kept in watching the
events outside. There was a melee outside. It was chaotic.
Suddenly my father could notice a black Mercedes car
outside on the road right in front of the shop he was sitting
in. Those days Mercedes were rare in India and only rich and
superrich people could afford such a luxurious car.
Immediately my father realized that the car belonged to the
richest person in the country then- Mr JRD Tata- a legend in
Indian Business.

My father was awestruck. He saw JRD sitting in relaxing on

the back seat while a chauffer on white uniform was on a
driving wheel. He kept on watching intently as he realized
that this was a historic movement in his life as he was
watching a doyen from such close quarters. JRD just leaned
in front to whisper to the driver possibly to find out why the
car has halted for so long. Maybe driver gave him some
answer. JRD just watched around without a frown on his
well chiseled handsome face and then sunk back into his
seat totally concentrated on the book he had in his hand,
deeply engrossed in reading. He was not even disturbed. His
each minute was worth lakhs of Rupees. But he never threw
any tantrums, he did not come out of the car and told the
policeman about whom he was. He could have easily done
that. A richest person getting stuck in traffic for almost an
hour was not a small thing. It could have been huge news in
media in today’s world. But this gentleman was just down to
earth. He never wanted to showcase to the world his status
and richness. He never got panicked, never even once
showed irritation. That truly was his richness.

(2) The inclined wall :

I have narrated a story of JRD above what I heard from my

father. Here is another one about the same legendary person
told to me by our family friend in Goa.

It was way back in the seventies or maybe early eighties.

TATAs were constructing a big hotel which was known
subsequently as Fort Acquada – a symbol of status hotels.
The hotel was under construction and the civil work was in
full swing. There was a lot of hustle bustle at the site that
day in the morning. There were of course many onlookers
too. The Engineer on site though junior, was leading a team
and was busy instructing and guiding the labours. Suddenly
a person dressed in white shirt and trousers came near the
Engineer and tapped on his shoulder. He whispered in the
ears of that engineer” I think that wall in the front is little
inclined. That may need some correction” The engineer who
was already egged up with this work in that hot sun literally
shouted at that person,” Don’t say something about what
you don’t know. I am an engineer here and know what is
right and what is not. Please move away.” That man said,” I
think I am right. Just check up!” This time, the engineer
ignored him, shrugged his shoulder, smirked at him and went
away, The man in white walked away, That man was JRD. He
went to his office, called his chief engineer on the project
and suggested that the wall needs to be checked. The chief
engineer immediately looked into that and rushed to the
site. He found that the observation of JRD was right. He
immediately asked the engineer on site to bring down that
wall and reconstruct.

The guy on site suddenly realized that this is exactly what

that man in white was telling
him, He reported that to the
Chief Engineer. He was taken
aback. He informed the site
engineer that the man in
white was no one else but
JRD, the owner of the project.
Site engineer was shocked
and got frightened. He could never imagine JRD would come
and stand in the crowd of onlookers. Through his boss he
approached JRD to apologize. But JRD had already forgiven
him by not initiating any action against him. The guy
realized that JRD was not only the richest person in the
country that time because of money that he had but
because of his humility and modesty. These virtues decide a
character of a true person and make one really successful
in the world.
Cricket is a gentleman’s game..
By Ajit Sir

By now, you may possibly know that I love Cricket. Right till
I became of your age, I was an ardent follower of this
wonderful game which was known as Gentleman’s game
throughout a world. The times possibly have changed in the
past few decades,

In my childhood, I was a regular visitor to the cricket

grounds in South Mumbai. There were plenty of grounds that
time. Most of the times there used to be some matches or
the other on these grounds. Times Shield, Kanga Leagues,
Purushottam Shield etc. During our vacations we all would
go there to watch, We were crazy about some cricketers like
Ajit Wadekar, Baloo Gupte, Polly Umrigar, Bapu Nadkarni,
Ramakant Desai and many more who were also on the
cricketing map of India too. They were all our idols those
times. Many cricketers from all over the country also used
to come and display their cricketing skills. I still remember
some of the things from those days as if they occurred
yesterday, I saw many of these characters who in spite of
their bigness and fame even on the international scene
showed a human touch like humility and I am indebted to all
of them. They were our Gods from the heaven but with their
feet firmly on the ground.

Once it so happened that we were hopping from one tent to

the other as there were many matched being played
simultaneously. All our stars had descended on the earth
that day. Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, M L Jaisimha, Hanuman
Singh all of these big names in those days. We had
autographs of Mumbai players in our
book but never had an opportunity to
get the players from other states in
our autograph books. This was the
time. I approached Pataudi who
hooted us away and did not even allow us to come anywhere
near him. Same was with Jaisimha though he was not so
rude. There we spotted Hanuman Singh. He had just arrived
on test scene scoring a century on his debut against
England a few weeks ago. He was going away with his kit in
his hands after the match. We approached him with a lot of
apprehensions; we were expecting the same treatment as
we had got from other bigwigs. The moment we reached
Hanuman Singh, He looked at us and then looked at the kit
he was holding, Obviously he wanted to oblige us with
autograph. I just extended my hands to hold his kit in my
small hands. He smiled and handed over the same to me. He
freed his hands to sign our books. Returned the pen and the
book and took back his kit saying “Thank you”. We all had
tears in our eyes. A player of that stature being so modest,
so humble! Another time, State Bank was playing ACC. That
was the match of titans for us. Ajit Wadekar
indisputably was the king of our heart. He
was playing. We were just glued to our seats
in that small tent. Not many people around
anyway and hence we could get to sit in
those pavilion cane chairs, Wadekar was
batting and we had no other reason to see
around. Now I think we used to meditate on
his batting. But from the corner of the eye
we could see a small statured man wearing sun glasses
standing holding to one of the bamboo poles of the tent right
in the Sun. He was keenly observing the game. Another few
minutes and there was a tea break. Wadekar and his
colleague were returning to the tent. As he came closer to
the tent, Wadekar stopped and looked at that man with
sunglasses. Moved towards him with excitement and asked
him,”Hey, Wishy, what are you doing standing here. Arre, you
should be sitting in.” Suddenly we realized that the guy we
were ignoring was none other than Gundappa Vishwanath,
India’s most promising test batsman who had already some
cneturies in the last few weeks. Here was the batsman who
was mainstay of Indian batting line up. My God! We stood up
in awe. We felt a deep feeling of guilt. I was wondering how
this great batsman stood out in the Sun allowing us to
watch the match from the comforts of the tent? What a
grand character this guy is? He could have easily thrown his
weight around and summoned us out. But he did not do that.
He was then and as I understand throughout his life
thereafter would never lift his feet away from the earth. He
was small in stature but giant in human values.

My whole generation had ample opportunities to thank God

for creating such wonderful people around us. I wish the
world sees more and more such episodes to re-establish the
faith in humanity.

May God make you all a wonderful person.