'The people of India have shown immense faith in the Tata group as they have never broken the trust of Indians.'
On Chandra's right is Shantanu Naidu, Mr Tata's protege. Photograph: Hitesh Harisinghani/Rediff.com
"A customer is a godsend in the times of Uber and Ola," says taxi driver Ram Yadav as I hire his cab on Thursday morning to reach the National Centre for Performing Arts at Nariman Point in south Mumbai, where Ratan Tata's mortal remains were kept for the public to pay their last respects.
As the taxi set out, I asked Mr Yadav, 59, when he first heard of the Tata name.
I was 10 when I went with my father Badri Yadav to a hardware shop to buy a spade for digging our farmland.
This was at Ataipur village, Mahul, Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh way back in 1975.
When the shopkeeper was showing us different spades, my father insisted that he needed a spade made by a Tata company.
It was the first time I had heard the name Tata. I understood the meaning of Tata the moment I saw my father's eyes.
Tata means Trust.
It means that once you buy any product which has the Tata name on it, you can rest assured that it will not deceive you.
I still nurture my belief in the Tatas and will continue to do so till I die.
When I was around 18 I came to Mumbai to work in a bakery because one of our village neighbours needed a helping hand to set up a business.
Later, I moved on to selling milk and finally settled down to driving vehicles.
Since the name Tata was associated with trust in my mind, I started driving Tata trucks.
Those days there was no power steering for trucks, still I felt I was driving the best of trucks because Tata made their product that way.
Later I drove the Tata 407 tempo for delivering goods. And when I got old I began to drive a taxi.
I didn't get a Tata car to drive, therefore I drive a Hyundai taxi.
There is one thing that Tata did for me which changed my life forever in Mumbai.
I had purchased a small hutment for Rs 30,000 in 1989 in the Wadala area (north central Mumbai). It was a tiny 10 feet by 10 feet room.
The hut had no toilet and I used to defecate in the open in an area which is now called New Cuffe Parade.
One day all of us hutment dwellers were told to vacate our homes by the government because they were building a monorail.
Nobody was willing to vacate as we all had legal documents in our names.
The government knew that a deadlock was certain for the monorail project as the hutment dwellers were not willing to move.
The government feared that the project would be stalled and had no idea what to do.
Enter Tata Power.
Tata Power officials arranged a meeting between us and government representatives to explain that their company wanted our hutment area because they have to construct electricity poles for the monorail.
We hutment dwellers agreed to shift a little distance away from our existing site. And you know the reason? Trust.
With the trust I developed as a child, I was able to convince all the hutment dwellers that we must go ahead with Tata Power's plan.
Later, in agreement with the state government, all hutment dwellers got one room houses measuring 225 square feet.
I no longer defecate in the open as I used to do when I lived in the hut.
Today, the value of my house is Rs 30 lakh, and it is only thanks to the Tatas.
When I first came to Mumbai, I used to see the names of big businessmen like Mafatlals and many others.
All of those businessmen from the 1980s have disappeared and only Tata remains from that era.
The people of India have shown immense faith in the Tata group as they have never broken the trust of Indians.
Be it salt to steel, Tata products last and it has longevity compared to any other business group.
If they tell you a price, they will charge you only that much and not change it later.
Tatas will never do unethical business practices.
The Tata group is not a lootera like some other business houses who fleece customers all the time.
And what about those spades I bought as a child?
They are still in working condition and we sharpen them at the local blacksmith every year.
I get nostalgic when I see them as it reminds me of my father and the Tata brand.
Ratan Tata is no more, but the trust in Tata name will live forever.
