'I Was Very Proud Of Ratan Tata'

'...and I was a great admirer of his leadership of Tata Sons.'

Zubin Mehta and Ratan Tata were school pals.

Zubin was a year and a few months older than Ratan, but they -- along with Zubin's younger brother Zarin -- were in and out of each other's homes and the best of friends as little boys growing up against the landscape of a balmy, pretty pre-independence Bombay, where ringing trams and clippety-clopping Victorias once plied and life had a special sweetness in this city of dreams.

Mehta lived in a home, that reverberated with music, on the Cuffe Parade promenade, that looked out to the Arabian Sea.

While Tata spent his boyhood under the watchful eye of his regal but gracious grandmother, Lady Navajbai Tata, in the rambling, snowy-white Tata Palace, that looked out to bustling Victoria Terminus.

Tata's father Naval Tata had been a "good friend" of Mehta's father, musician, conductor and violinist Mehli Mehta.

Zubin Mehta gave up a career in medicine at 18 to go off to Vienna to study music. Ratan Tata headed to New York.

Sharing childhood memories was the powerful bond that has always brought these two distinguished, intriguing, men -- who eventually went on to inhabit such disparate worlds -- together. Mehta always says 'Bombay is still the only place my dreams take me to'.

Many "common friends" also drew them close and he commented in an interview to Rediff.com in 2013, "We can't get away from each other" although he said Tata was always the same -- "quiet" and "unassuming".

Even as recently two or three years ago, when Zubin Mehta and RNT last met at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, it was talk of the old days that overtook their conversation, the legendary music conductor recalls.

In 2013 when Tata retired, Mehta said to Rediff.com, that he hoped he would see more of the former Tata chairman, who he described as "a very sweet, good looking, good natured."

On Thursday, in an early morning interview over the phone to Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com, from Florence, the maestro spoke about subsequent meetings since 2013 and remembered his school buddy, Ratan Tata who passed away on October 9 in Mumbai:

"Well (after he retired), I saw him once in Lucerne, in Switzerland, and then in Bombay, he came to see my wife and myself at the Taj hotel. Recently, when I came for concerts, I invited him, but he was quite ill and he could not come."

When was the last time you spoke to him?

No, I haven't spoken to him for about two or three years.

And when you did speak to him, did you discuss music or what would you be speaking about?

No, no. Look, we were old friends. We were in class together at St Mary's High School (actually it was at Campion School, Cooperage. From Campion, since the school did not have higher classes, Tata transferred to Cathedral and John Connon School, Fort, and Mehta went to St Mary's, Byculla).

I would go to his house as a child and (later as a) teenager for birthday parties and things like that.

After that, we didn't meet too much. Except when I came to Bombay later on, I would invite the whole orchestra (that he was in Bombay with) for dinners, and he would come to those dinners too.

When was it that he met you and your wife? Could you please describe that meeting?

Two or three years ago. It was between two old friends. He came to see us at the Taj Mahal hotel, where we were staying, for about an hour and then left. And we haven't seen him since.

We're just old friends. We speak about old remembrances. He was not particularly musically interested, and so we didn't speak about music.

What would you like to say as a tribute? What are the most important things that he should be remembered for in your view?

He was a great leader of his family's concern. Tata Sons will miss him a lot, I'm sure.

He brought the company up to one of the great companies, not only of India, but of the world.

I heard about his funeral. Thousands of people came. I was very pleased to hear that.

How did you get to hear that he had passed away?

I heard it on CNN, actually.

And what are some of the things that you or your brother might miss about your friendship with him?

My brother has not had too much contact with him, although they were in the same class in school...

So, you didn't sort of pick up the phone and speak to each other on a regular basis?

No, no, not too often.

Personally, what will you miss most about him?

Well, he was a good friend whenever we met, and I was a great admirer of his leadership of Tata Sons.

I was very proud. Very proud of him, frankly.

• FAREWELL, Mr TATA

Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff.com