This dog attends all Ratan Tata’s meetings

Team Udayavani, Feb 10, 2022, 12:09 PM IST

There is only one stray dog who can claim to be Ratan Tata’s favourite among the numerous that live at Bombay House, the Tata Group’s global headquarters. Goa, a black and white dog, is the pack leader at Bombay House and a close friend of Mr Tata, who is known for his love of dogs. Goa even appears to comprehend the importance of obeying Ratan Tata, as an interviewer discovered when she paid a visit to his office.

In a LinkedIn article published Monday, Karishma Mehta, the founder of ‘Humans of Bombay,’ revealed that when she first met Ratan Tata, he was in his office with Goa snuggled in the chair next to him. Ms Mehta, who is terrified of dogs, was taken aback when Mr Tata asked Goa to behave in front of her – and he did. In her now-viral post, she described the experience.

“As I waited outside Mr. Tata’s office, I noticed a dog tucked in comfortably in the chair next to his,” Ms Mehta wrote. “I’m terrified of dogs and there sat a man who I’d been waiting years to interview… next to a dog.”

Ms Mehta told Ratan Tata’s aide Shantanu that she was afraid of dogs, but the Tata Group’s Chairman Emeritus overheard their conversation.

“A little smile formed on Mr. Tata’s face as he turned to the dog in his chair and spoke to him, like he would to a human being and said, ‘Goa, she’s scared of you, please be a good boy and sit!'” Ms Mehta recalled in her post.

“I kid you not, for the entire 30-40 minutes I was there, Goa didn’t come anywhere near me! I was baffled- it had never happened before!” Karishma Mehta wrote.

She also remembered Mr Tata telling her afterwards that Goa was a stray dog who “adopted” them.

“Goa’s a stray and decided to adopt us, so we adopted him back!” he told the interviewer.

“From keenly asking me about Humans of Bombay with perked interest and then humbly asking me to sign the copy of our book that I gifted him – I wondered how it was possible for someone to make you feel so good, by just being themselves,” Ms Mehta wrote.

 

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Ratan Tata was not just interested in her work, but he also remembered a Humans of Bombay tale about a 10-year-old girl who was shot at Mumbai’s CST and was not properly compensated.