The Obama connection

"I was introduced as Leopold’s owner... I felt proud because he had heard about the Café,” said Farhad Jehani, co-owner of Bombay’s Leopold Café which had been one of the main targets during the 26/11 terror attacks in Bombay two years ago. Jehani was among the select group of survivors and relatives of victims present at the terrace of the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower to meet US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle on November 6, 2010 during their two-day visit to the city.

Ratan Tata, Tata Group chairman who heads the board of the Indian Hotels Company Limited which owns the Taj, greeted the President at a private meeting along with the hotel’s senior management. With the heritage wing, which suffered massive damage in the attacks, renovated at great cost and reopened, the Obamas made the hotel their base during the visit to express special solidarity. "No sooner had the powerful US couple been introduced to Tata, President Obama told the First Lady that this is the person who created the US $ 2,500 wonder car (the Nano). Eyewitnesses said Michelle immediately expressed a desire to see the car,” reports The Indian Express, November 8. The next morning a gleaming Nano arrived at the porch of the Taj and the couple had a good look, with Michelle even squeezing her tall frame into the small car, the paper notes.

India important: Barack Obama with Manmohan Singh

Tata was among the leaders of India Incorporated who interacted with the US President at a business meet. Rustom Desai, president, Corning India, and Meher Pudumjee, chairman, Thermax, were reportedly also among the industry leaders invited. (Desai is an alumnus of The Johnson School, Cornell University. Corning is at the forefront of communications as it manufactures keystone components for Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs), commonplace today in televisions, computers and mobile devices. He is scheduled to be a class guest speaker at The Johnson School on November 22, 2010, as per the School’s website. Pudumjee is chairman of Thermax, a leader in sustainable solutions in energy and environment, whose latest acquisition is European boiler manufacturer Danstoker and its German subsidiary Omnical Kessel. The acquisition, valued at Euro 29.5 million, was completed on November 8, as per the company’s website.)

(Above clockwise from top left) Ratan Tata, Rustom Desai, Afsheen Irani and Farhad Jehani; (below) President Obama with students at St. Xavier’s College

"He (Obama) handled the question very diplomatically; without saying anything more than we already know. I do understand the impact his words can have,” 19-year-old Afsheen Irani was quoted on the front page of Mumbai Newsline, November 8, 2010. Irani was among the 20 students shortlisted by her college (H. R. College) to interact with Obama at a midday meet of students from select institutions at the St Xavier’s College at Dhobi Talao in Bombay on November 7. Though there were stringent procedures in place to shortlist candidates, "I am glad that we were given complete freedom while framing our questions,” she told the paper. It was Irani’s question which "finally nudged the US President to speak on US-Pakistan ties,” the paper adds. "I did not plan this. I had originally planned to ask him why US businesses were not setting up chairs in Indian universities the way Indian companies were doing in American universities,” Irani is quoted in Calcutta’s The Telegraph, November 9, 2010. [In October, the Tata Group made a $ 50 million (Rs 220 crore) donation to the Harvard Business School to build an academic and residential building on the institute’s campus in Boston. The amount is the largest international donation in the School’s century-old history. The new building will reportedly be called the Tata Hall. The donation follows a $10 million gift from Anand Mahindra of Mahin­dra and Mahindra Limited to the Humanities Centre at Harvard University a week earlier.] "I was quite nervous before the session. Minutes before he (Obama) walked in, I got a text message from my dad saying ‘ask your question, whatever it is, but ask.’ I never imagined the buzz it would create... I am overwhelmed,” The Telegraph quotes Irani. The second year management student is a resident of Jogeshwari. Her father Faredoon is a builder and mother Taubon a lawyer, the paper writes. Irani aims to pursue law or a master’s degree in a reputed university abroad and is looking out for scholarships, states The Telegraph. Also present at the meet were students Jahan Pestonjamas and Zenia Motivala.