Rata Tata passed away on Wednesday night at the Breach Candy hospital in Mumbai at the age of 86. He was undergoing treatment for prolonged illness. As the industrialist and India’s tycoon passed away, the citizens of the nation feel a huge sense of void due to the impact he had. While Tata was a recipient of the Padma Vibhushanand his long list of achievements and work remains unparalleled, he somehow never got married and remained single.
The tycoon had made a rare appearance once on ‘Rendezvous With Simi Garewal‘, where he was asked about why he never got married. Responding to it, he had revealed, “A whole series of things (stopped me from marrying) – timing, my absorption in work at the time. I came close to getting married sometimes, but it didn’t work out.”
However, he revealed that he had fallen in love about four times and was close to getting married, but somehow, it never worked out. He did admit to feeling lonely sometimes though. “There are many times that I feel lonely about not having a wife or a family, and sometimes I long for it. Sometimes I enjoy the freedom of not having to worry about the feelings of someone else or the concerns of someone else. On other times, it does get a little lonely,” said Tata.
Incidentally, Tata was also in a relationship with Simi Garewal. The actress had admitted to it in an interview in 2011.
While this was a very old conversation, more recently, Tata had opened up on his first love during a chat with Humans of Bombay and why he couldn’t marry her. He revealed, “It was in LA that I fell in love and almost got married. But at the same time, I had made the decision to move back, at least temporarily, since I had been away from my grandmother, who wasn’t keeping too well, for almost seven years. So I came back to visit her and thought that the person I wanted to marry would come to India with me, but because of the 1962 Indo-China warher parents weren’t okay with her making the move anymore, and the relationship fell apart.”
The mortal remains of Tata will be kept at the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) in south Mumbai’s Nariman Point from 10 am to 4 pm on Thursday. Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde has announced that Ratan Dad will be accorded a state funeral by the Maharashtra government.