In his later years, the only childhood incident JRD Tata remembered is the sound thrashing from his father when he was four. That was for being rude to his aayah (nanny). Since then, nobody ever remembers JRD being rude. He was supposed to posses a quick temper. But rude? Never! This rare, genteel quality rubbed off on his colleagues and is the brand, which makes the Tata group of companies, tower over others. This is also the legacy which JRD - today he would have been 100 - spread.

Born in Paris to RD Tata, a business partner and relative of Jamshetji Tata, and his French wife Sooni, JRD spent his formative years mainly in France and went to school in France, Japan and India. He was then drafted into the French army for the mandatory year-long stint. He wanted to extend his army service so that he could attend a renowned horse riding school but his father would have none of it. Call it destiny or whatever, shortly thereafter the entire regiment he served in was wiped out while on an expedition in Morocco.

JRD then was keen on studying engineering at Cambridge but his father summoned him to India to serve with the Tatas. JRD therefore never went to college, which was the major regret of his life. JRD joined the Tatas as an unpaid apprentice in December 1925. At 22, soon after his father passed away, JRD joined the board of Tata Sons, the group's flagship company. In 1929, aged 25, he surrendered his French citizenship to become a 'compleat' Indian.

Since childhood, JRD had a fascination for flying, which led him to set up Tata Aviation Service, an airmail service that would connect Bombay, Ahmedabad and Karachi. This company later became Tata Airlines and in 1953, morphed into Air India, a nationalised carrier. Jawaharlal Nehru, a good friend - though they never agreed on politics - let JRD continue to head Air India without government interferance. An interesting feature of JRD's executive style was that he spent his working hours with the Tata companies in a partially hands off, non-executive style while his time with Air India was spent in a totally hands-on style.