The Dog Who Sits In Ratan Tata's Office, Attends His Meetings

Among the many stray dogs that have a home at Bombay House - the global headquarters of the Tata Group - there is only one who can lay claim to being Ratan Tata's favourite. Goa, a black and white dog, is the leader-of-the-pack at Bombay House and a special friend of Mr Tata's, whose fondness for dogs is well known. Goa even seems to understand obey Ratan Tata - as an interviewer found out when she visited the office.

Karishma Mehta, the founder of 'Humans of Bombay' revealed in a LinkedIn post shared Monday that when she first met Ratan Tata, he was in his office with Goa tucked in the chair next to him. Mortally afraid of dogs, Ms Mehta was left surprised when Mr Tata asked Goa to behave in front of her - and he obeyed. She related the incident in her now-viral post. 

"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 assistant Shantanu that she was terrified of dogs, but the Chairman Emeritus of Tata Group overheard their exchange. 

"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.

To her amazement, the dog seemed to understand Mr Tata. "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 further recalled that Mr Tata later told her 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. 

According to Ms Mehta, Goa spends all day at the office as Mr Tata carries on with his meetings.

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She also wrote more about her interaction with Mr Tata, for whom she was full of praise. "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, adding that she was almost at a loss for words when it came to signing the book. 

Not only did Ratan Tata show interest in her work, he even remembered a Humans of Bombay story about a 10 year old girl was shot at Mumbai's CST and had not received proper remuneration. "He asked for her to be connected to the Tata Trust so that they could take care of her," Ms Mehta recalled. She concluded her post by saying it was a privilege to meet Ratan Tata. 

Humans of Bombay carried a three-part interview with Ratan Tata back in March 2020. You can read it here.