26/11 was a night when Mumbai burned… and a 70-year-old man stood outside the Taj, refusing to leave.
While bullets echoed inside those heritage walls, Ratan Tata waited on the pavement for three days, not as an industrialist, not as a billionaire, but as a man who believed that leadership means standing with your people when they need you most. He wasn’t allowed to enter. He wasn’t given any special corridor. But he stayed.
Through the smoke, through the fear, through the long, endless hours. When the siege finally ended, he didn’t hold press conferences or give grand speeches. He visited every family who lost someone. He restored every part of the Taj stone by stone. And instead of building statues in memory, he built a Trust that still supports the victims of 26/11.
The terrorists wanted to break Mumbai. But Mumbai stood together and so did he.
On this day, we remember the lives lost. We honour the bravery that saved hundreds. And we remember that leadership isn’t measured in titles… but in the footsteps.
Vande Mataram
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