10/17/2024
"Nazia and Zoheb you have a telephone call from some gentleman by the name of Mr. Ratan", my mother said while handing Nazia the phone. "My name is Ratan and I am starting a music company by the name of CBS India. I would like you and Zoheb to record an album for us if possible", he said.
"Can I come and meet with both of you?"
"Mama can Mr. Ratan come over to discuss a music project with us?!" Nazia said excitedly to mother.
"Not today maybe on Friday" said mother.
"Mr. Ratan can you come on Friday to our home in Wimbledon?", Nazia said in a business like manner.
On Friday a tall, impeccably dressed man in a suit arrived at our residence. He had a gentle smile on his face and was extremely soft spoken.
He seemed so sincere when he spoke. We had no idea who he was and he never bragged about himself. He just said "if you guys agree then let's make it happen. I will get someone to get in touch with you regarding the agreement. Make sure you get a lawyer and your parents to look at the agreement. If you don't agree with anything speak to me directly."
The rest is history and we produced the album with possibly the first music videos and had ever seen. This was around the time had just launched in . MTV called us and said they had never seen anything like this and asked if we had done anything in .
played the music videos in India and the album outsold even .
When we finally met Mr. on the launch of the album at in we were then told by the MD of India who this great man was. Until then we had no idea who Mr.Ratan was.
After the launch of the album he invited Nazia and I to his residence for dinner. We thought he probably lived in a palace. When we reached we were taken aback that the most powerful industrialist of India lived in such a humble abode. A small 2 bed flat sparsely decorated. We met his sister, one servant and an whom he loved dearly. It was a simple dinner with a great man which to this day I will never forget.
I did meet Mr. Tata several times post this dinner. Once on in London while shopping. "How are you Zoheb? How is Nazia and your parents?"
"Hi Mr.Ratan they are fine thank you. What brings you to the UK?" He smiled and said "to look at some airplanes". Later I found out he came to purchase a few planes for which he also owned at that time.
Mr. Tata was living proof that one can be an iconic and still be a true . Dearly missed. Rip 🪦
