'Easy to get along, charming, intelligent': Ratan Tata's yearbook foretold his success in 1955

Ratan Tata is easy to get along, intelligent, and charming, who is bound to be successful -- Riverdale Country School's quite remarkable and apt assessment of the Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons. The 1955 yearbook of Riverdale also spoke about how Americanised he had become in just a year of study abroad and talked about how his khaki pants and yellow shirt had become the centre of discussion.

Tata took to Instagram to share a snippet of his yearbook from 1955. "Throwing far back to my school days this Thursday, thinking about my friends Lou and Rudy. A snippet from my yearbook, Riverdale Country School, 1955," he said in the caption.

He shared an image of this yearbook page. Along with a black and white image of a sharply suited Tata, the essay said: Ratan Tata comes to us from India. Easy to get along with, he has made many friends, and although he has been here only a year and a half, he has become quite Americanised. His khaki pants, not forgetting his yellow shirt, has become the centre of much discussion.

The yearbook essay said that Tata hoped to be an engineer and had surprised his physics teachers with his knowledge of engineering principles. It also lauded his sportsmanship. "Last spring Ratan, although he had never seen a baseball before, played for the J.V. team," it added.

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Throwing far back to my school days this Thursday, thinking about my friends Lou and Rudy. A snippet from my yearbook, Riverdale Country School,1955.

A post shared by Ratan Tata (@ratantata) on Oct 8, 2020 at 6:13am PDT

"A staunch member of the Cosmopolitan Club", Tata had spoken about India. The yearbook noted that Tata compared his school in India to Riverdale and concluded that although he has six fewer classes, Riverdale is a much tougher school.

The essay added that Ratan Tata plans to become an engineer. "Ratan's charming and unassuming character is sure to bring him success. We are sure that if he continues to develop his charm and intelligence to the full, he will have a happy and useful life," predicted Riverdale in the yearbook essay.

Tata shared another black and white image where he can be seen with two friends, who appear to be Lou and Rudy he speaks about in the caption.

Like what has become the usual fare in his social media posts, followers took to inundate the post with praises for the throwback picture.

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