At the Champions Trophy of 2013, the captain M.S. Dhoni asked Rohit Sharma to open the innings for India. “He just came up to me and said ‘I want you to open the innings as I am confident that you will do well,'” Rohit recalled in an interview with the Press Trust of India in 2017.
“I believe the decision to open in ODIs changed my career and it was a decision taken by M.S. Dhoni,” he said. “He told me that I shouldn’t be scared of failures or get upset by criticism.”
In January 2021 Ratan Tata, then 83 years old, traveled from Mumbai to Pune to visit a former Tata employee. The man had “been suffering from ill-health over the past two years,” Business Today reported. The visit became known through a post on LinkedIn. “The private visit was not publicised in any way, and there were no media present,” YourStory wrote.
In the Hindi film industry, a newcomer’s patron is called a godfather. Tab Hansal Mehta ne Rajkumar ka talent dekhe aur actor ke godfather ban gaye. Then Hansal Mehta saw Rajkummar’s talent and became the actor’s godfather, a Hindi film site writes of the actor Rajkummar Rao.
Actors who arrive without one say so. “I don’t have any particular godfather, who is always there and helping me out,” Kriti Sanon said in 2017. The actor Amit Sadh said in 2015: “I don’t believe in godfather. I believe that I have a God.”
“A commanding officer is expected to be a Mother too,” writes Major General C.M. Seth, retired, in a paper on commanding a battalion for the Centre for Land Warfare Studies. In an article of 2020 on the Indian Army, Nilesh Kunwar writes that “the CO is looked upon by the rank and file as the patriarch.”
Haath sar par rakhna: to put a hand on someone’s head. The Rekhta dictionary gives “patronize” and “show affection, kindness.” Its Hindi entry adds to become someone’s patron, murabbi banna, and to be their helper.
Pahunch: reach. Rekhta gives “access, entrance, admittance.” Its Hindi entry adds sampark, prabhav, contact and influence.
In 1980 the Indian psychologist Jai B.P. Sinha described the nurturant task leader. In Sinha’s words, such a leader “cares for his subordinates, shows affection, takes personal interest in their well-being.” A 1990 summary of the model by the researcher Ansari adds that the leader makes this care “contingent on the subordinate’s task accomplishment.”
The model describes subordinates who “depend excessively on their superiors for directions, guidance, and support,” and who prefer a personal relationship with the leader to a contractual one.
In November 2008 terrorists attacked the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai. Employees of the hotel were among those killed. Their families “were entitled to receive full salary” until the date of the employee’s retirement, The Week reported.
Ratan Tata, then chairman of the Tata group, “visited his injured employees at hospitals and wholeheartedly embraced those who lost kith and kin to the violence.” He also “ensured the children of his late employees received a good education.”
Field Marshal Philip Chetwode spoke at the inauguration of the Indian Military Academy in December 1932. His words are known at the academy as the Chetwode Motto. Two of its lines read: “The honour, welfare and comfort of the men you command come next. Your own ease, comfort and safety come last, always and every time.”
In 1979 the first flight of India’s satellite launch vehicle, SLV-3, failed. Satish Dhawan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, faced the press himself. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the project director, later recalled: “He took the whole blame on himself despite criticisms.” Dhawan told the press that “next year we would succeed because his team was a very good one.”
Mai-baap: mother and father. The Rekhta dictionary gives its meanings: parents, master, lord, the one who brings someone up, ruler, guardian. The same word names the parent and the person in charge.