The Joy Of Achievement: A Conversation With J. R. D. Tata

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An entertaining, intimate and deeply moving portrait of the legendary industrialist. For six decades J.R.D. Tata headed India’s largest industrial conglomerate with uncommon success. This was only one aspect of his life. He was also a man of great sensitivity who suffered at the loss of friends and was pained by the poverty he saw around him: a philanthropist who wanted India to be ‘a happy country’ and did all that he could to make it so: a man with a passion for literature, fast cars, skiing and, of course, flying. This book, by the author of the best-selling The Last Blue Mountain, records JRD’s thoughts on a variety of subjects. In these pages he speaks of the House of Tatas and his style of management, about how he nearly joined the freedom struggle in the early 1940s, about the ‘thrill of living a little dangerously’, his love of music and wine, and the writers he likes to read. He speaks also, with striking candour and insight, about the failures of socialism, the future of India and his association with stalwarts like Jawaharlal Nehru. Jayaprakash Narayan, Vallabbhai Patel, Indira Gandhi and Henry Kissinger. Towards the end of the book, in the final year of his life, we see him come to terms with death, God and the afterlife About The Author R.M. Lala started his career in journalism in 1948 at the age of nineteen. In 1959 he became the manager of the first Indian book publishing house in London and in 1964 he founded (with Rajmohan Gandhi) Himmat Weekly, which he edited for a decade. His first book, The Creation of Wealth, was published to critical and commercial acclaim in 1981. This was followed by other books including Beyond the Last Blue Mountain: A Life of J.R.D. Tata (1992), Celebration of the Cells: Letters from a Cancer Survivor (1999), A Touch of Greatness: Encounters with the Eminent (2001), For the Love of India: The Life and Times of Jamsetji Tata (2004)and In Search of Ethical Leadership (2005). His books have been translated into several languages including Japanese. Lala was director of Tata’s premier foundation the Dorabji Tata Trust for eighteen years. His book The Heartbeat of a Trust is based on this Trust. He is co-founder of the Centre for the Advancement of Philanthropy and has been its chairman since 1993