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Ashalata Maheshwari, an investor in about 1,000 blue-chip companies, is a regular at most annual general meetings (AGMs). She was in for a surprise when Ratan Tata announced her name as Asha ‘Lata Mangeshkar’.
The head of the $83.3-billion Tata group was quick to correct his mistake with a witty remark: “I think you can start singing too…,” he said to a sheepish Maheshwari, who was singing the Chairman’s praises.
Tata’s penchant for witty remarks and comments, as legendary as the man himself, have always been in evidence at the various group companies’ AGMs that Business Line has covered. Apart from conducting the business of the day in a sombre manner, Tata used the occasion to show off his humorous side. Ratan Tata retires in December, this year, when he turns 75.
“I am not going to disappear. You will continue to see my face. I will be around, whether you like it or not,” he chuckled, to an astonished crowd at the Tata Motors’ shareholder AGM.
At the Tata Consultancy Services shareholder meet, he had another trick up his sleeve and didn’t shy away from taking a dig at himself. He dismissed the special bonus ‘parting gift’ sought by a shareholder with the wry remark, “You may remember me as the stingiest chairman.”
A reference to the Parsi community’s contribution to the city’s industrial development did not go unnoticed at the Tata Power AGM. To a comment on “no Parsis, no Bombay,” Tata jocularly said: “I don’t know whether it is ‘no Parsis, no Bombay’… but ‘no Parsis, definitely no dhansak’ .”
The trademark Parsi dish, traditionally prepared with meat and flavoured with aromatic spices, and served with caramelised brown rice, came in for comment once again at the Tata Chemicals’ AGM. In a lighter vein, Tata exhorted the crowd, “Everybody eating dhansak on Sundays will live as long as the Parsis live.”
Winner of the Padma Bhushan (2000) and Padma Vibhushan (2008), Ratan Tata is to chair the Tata Global Beverages AGM on August 31 in Kolkata. This will be his last major Tata group company AGM.
At most of the recent AGMs, as the audience braced for an emotional farewell and Tata thanked everyone for their affection and warmth, his wry humour was always around. “Sorry, I have never been able to satisfy (Ashalata) Maheshwari on the bonus, but my successor will…,” was his parting shot.
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