MUMBAI: Many thousands including top political leaders, captains of industry, celebs and commoners bid a tearful farewell to the legendary business giant and a genteel Parsi, Ratan Naval Tata at his final journey on Thursday.
Battling with age-related health issues at the Breach Candy Hospital since Monday, Tata (86) breathed his last shortly before midnight on Wednesday, plunging the world of industry and corporates into gloom.
His mortal remains were taken to the NCPA Lawns this morning to enable the people to pay their last respects before the funeral at the Worli Crematorium in the evening.
Since morning, thousands of people and dignitaries, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, Speaker Rahul Narwekar, Central and state ministers, MPs, legislators and leaders of all political parties turned up to pay their respects.
India’s top industrialist tycoons including Mukesh Ambani, his wife Nita Ambani and their family members, representatives or heads of leading business families like the Piramals, Godrejs, Hindujas, Mahindras, Bajajs, Birlas and more attended and paid homage to the departed star of the country’s business galaxy.
Other notables included Nationalist Congress Party (SP) President Sharad Pawar, Working President Supriya Sule, Jayant Patil, Jitendra Awhad, Shiv Sena (UBT) President Uddhav Thackeray, wife Rashmi, son Aditya, Arvind Sawant, MP, Congress’ former Chief Ministers Sushilkumar Shinde, Prithviraj Chavan, Leader of Opposition Vijay Wadettiwar, state chief Nana Patole, Balasaheb Thorat, Satej Bunty Patil.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena President Raj Thackeray and his family, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi President Prakash Ambedkar and others also visited or paid glowing tributes to Tata’s memory and his contributions to the country.
After the teeming crowds at Nariman Point, this afternoon Tata’s glass-topped coffin draped in the Tricolour was mounted in a closed flower-bedecked van which sped off to the Prayer Hall and Crematorium at Worli, some 12 km away.
His head, covered in a typical red Parsi prayer cap and body in a traditional community attire, was visible from the coffin at the NCPA Lawns and the Prayer Hall in Worli, as Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Parsi religious men chanted prayers and reverently stood beside.
Hundreds of vehicles carrying the police, security, political and other VVIPs plus hordes of media persons zoomed along the Mumbai Coastal Road, even as normal traffic movement was halted for some time.
En route, on both sides, there were many thousands of Mumbaikars, many with moist eyes, raising their hands in a symbolic ‘Goodbye, Tata’, some carrying small posters or placards with his photos as the motorcade zipped away.
Before Worli, there were many more thousands of locals who had trooped out on the roads and stood on both sides, hoping to catch a glimpse of the legendary tycoon who had touched the lives of many millions during his lifetime through his industries, social, educational, health and philanthropic activities.
At some squares and thoroughfares, there were large hoardings with photos of Tata and tributes by the common folk expressing their sentiments and gratitude to their iconic hero.
At the Worli Crematorium’s prayer hall, barely 200 VVIPs and close family members were permitted to offer wreaths and flowers to Tata’s remains kept there for some time.
Later, it was taken to the cremation spot by a police team, a police band played the Last Post, accorded him a gun salute, and removed and folded the Tricolour which was handed over to a relative.
NRI diamantaire from the USA, Ketan R. Kakkad, who woke up and broke down this morning over the shocking news, remembered how he was fortunate to host Tata for three days in New York and Washington in the late 1990s when he had gone there as part of a high-level business delegation of the Bihar government.
“Those days are my most cherished memories, I witnessed his simplicity, humility, his sheer patience at the antics of some of the politicians who came with the delegation, and although he was the jewel at all the events, maintained a low profile throughout, ” Kakkad told IANS in an emotionally-choked voice.
A Nagpur government employee and social worker Khushroo Poacha narrated how on February 14, 2005, he had sent a fax to Tata at his Bombay House (Mumbai) office for assistance to host his helpline, www.indianblooddonors.com portal.
“Not expecting it to come to his notice, I was pleasantly surprised when within 24 hours, he sent me a personal courier to Nagpur and arranged to resolve my problems through the Tata Indicom. That letter is my prized possession even today, ” Poacha told IANS, sharing the document.
The social media was flooded with similar big and small gestures of Tata that left an everlasting impression on thousands of people from all over the world, directly or indirectly, his love for dogs and a full-fledged animal care hospital at a cost of Rs 165 crore in Mahalaxmi for 200 ‘patients, ’ that was inaugurated in July 2024, and other touching experiences.