While a student at Elphinstone College, young Jamshetji had a narrow escape from death. He resided with his father in a small house in the Fort, using the topmost room as his study. It was a tiny appartment, a little attic tower, so close to the roof that during the monsoon he could scarce himself speak, owing to the noise of the tiles which rattled above his head. On one ocassion, during a terrific cyclone, when many ships in the harbour dragged their anchors and sank, his father rushed up from the floor insisting that Jamshetji should leave the house. The son obeyed, and tore himself from his books, to find the streets filled with an excited and shrieking crowd. Suddenly the nook he had occupied was torn awayby the force of the wind, to come crashing down at his feet.

It is believed that one of the ancestors of the Tata Family, Behram, took the name of 'TATA', probably a nickname meaning 'hot-tempered'. His descendants admit that Tata's are somewhat peppery.

During Jamshetji Tata's visit to USA in 1902, an interviewer one day followed him into a shop while he was buying some boots. Mr. Tata declined to be interviewed, but next day a New York newspaper gravely announced that 'the Pierpont Morgan of the East' was trying to acquire a monopoly of the American boot trade.

When Jamshetji was in USA in 1902, he quickly attracted the insatiable curiosity of the American newspaper reporters. One Cleveland writer, after describing him as 'a jolly good fellow' declared that he was 'the J P Morgan of the East India', and that his partner was 'the Nizam of Hyderabad'. When he went to Grand Rapids, a local newspaper announced that he was 'so rich that he had little idea of his own wealth, his possessions even exceeding those of the late Li Hung Chang, who was reckoned the richest man in the world'. The Birmingham Ledger said that 'he enjoys the distinction of having refused to be knighted by Queen Victoria at the cost of his religion, and asserted that he 'wore a large diamond in his shirt'. The Birmingham News insisted on christening him 'John N Tata'.

The name Subarnrekha means 'gold streaked' and at one time gold was found in the river bed. The river is the largest stream in the Chotanagpur area.