When Ratan Tata didn’t accept a lifetime achievement award from Prince Charles for his dog

Ratan Tata with his late dog Tito (Image: @ratantata/Instagram)

On February 6, 2018, Prince Charles wanted to give industrialist Ratan Tata a lifetime achievement award for philanthropy at the Buckingham Palace. But Tata couldn’t turn up for the event. The surprising reason was his dog.

Columnist Suhel Seth, in an interaction for a YouTube video, recalled the incident and showered praise on the much-revered businessman and talked about the reason why he missed such a big event.

“Everything was set. It (the award ceremony) was under the auspice of the British Asian Trust,” Seth said and recalled that he reached London on the 2nd or 3rd of February for the event.

Shocked to find 11 missed calls from Mr Tata after he landed at the airport, a worried Seth called the former Tata chairman as he picked up his bags from the airport.

“Tango and Tito, his dogs, one of them had fallen terribly ill,” Seth remembered Tata as saying. It was not clear which dog was ailing.

“I can’t leave him and come,” he quoted Tata as saying.

You can watch the video here.

Shocked, Seth tried to persuade the businessman to make it to the event by citing Prince Charles but to no avail. Tata didn’t turn up for his own award.

Seth then harked back on what Prince Charles said about Tata on hearing why he couldn’t make it to the ceremony.

“That’s a man. That’s the man Ratan is,” he quoted Prince Charles as saying.

“That’s why the house of Tata is what it is. That’s why it’s on stable course,” Seth concluded.

Ratan Tata, a well-known philanthropist, is known for his massive contributions to society, his humility and is respected by millions in the country. He is an avid-dog lover and his pet Tito passed away a few years ago.