Tuesday, December 16, 2008

The bees of thehive

thehive is the name of my multi-starrer ad agency. The characters are introduced in descending order of age. Before I begin, one must agree to the point that every person is smart and dumb in his or her own ways. And must take pride in whatever he or she possesses:

1. Ashim da: I bet there will be a million mistakes in my posts if he reads it. No matter how experienced a writer is, he will have something to learn from him. He has worked with many newspapers and has influenced life of many with his writings. He has retired from the main line writing and is now with thehive to help everyone with their piece of writing.Tag Line: Jiyo saar utha ke.

2. RP Singh: Jo bolle so nihal. He is the busiest Bee of thehive. Be it booking of a room, sorry hotel, in any corner of the world to getting a ticket for elections from BJP, he does it all with a silent click of his cellphone.
I have come across many suds in my life, but he supersedes all of them in all aspects He is the second most eldest person in age and the second youngest at heart (I’m the first).
Sassriya kaal
Tag line for him: Singh is King.

3. Sushil Pandit: I better be careful here. He is the BOSS. We both share one thing in common, both have been to MICA. Me as a student, and he, as a faculty for Media planning.
He is an encyclopedia of knowledge. Wonder why he dint try his luck at KBC? Oh I got it; he was a crorepati even before the game was conceptualized.
Sometimes you might get lost in his ocean of knowledge, because when you are discussing the North Pole, he’ll make sure you know the South Pole better than the north and even the different kinds of poles.
Last and the most important aspect of his life; he is the only person who can take out money from the politician’s wallet. He makes ads for BJP for all the elections in India and has a bad failure rate.
Tag line for him: Just do it.

4. PC. DAS: Dadoo!! As we call him. The three super stars including Sushil and RP are childhood friends and have shared many things together in their journey so far.
Working with Dadoo has been thrilling, as he strictly adheres to deadlines and is quite a short tempered person. Fortunately, I have never been at the receiving end.
Like me, even he hates to drive slowly. I mean Car!
Tag Line: Take it easy.

Now the fun part
5. Vishal Sharma: Don’t go by his looks, he is just 36. He is bald and humorous. He is the lifeline and laughter line of our office. Even a dead will come alive with his pranks and spontaneous jokes. But that’s just the fun part of Vishu, his brilliance exceeds his humor. It requires heavy balls to keep clients like Moolchandani’s and Agrawal’s in your pocket. And he does handle such complex clients with lots of simplicity.
Tag Line: Broadcast Yourself.

6. Deshpal: Everybody looks out for him every month. Everybody loves him, enjoys his company, and wants to see him on the 1st of every month. He is the Accountant of thehive.
Tag Line: Money hai toh Honey hai.

7. Radhika Dhawan: She is the Creative Director for copy. You can’t see her face properly in picture, nor do I get to see her so often. She comes once in a week and sometimes even once in a month. You just need two things to be a copywriter, one a Copy Book and second, a few months of working with her.
Tag line: Think hatke.


8. Abhay Vir: He is a copywriter, an art director, a techno freak and a hard disk of technology. He knows 72 softwares. Yeah! blink your eyes and read it again, its 72. He is a copywriter with a zing of art in him.
Another interesting thing about him is his age. His skin lies about it. He is 31 and a father of one, but looks twenty one.
Tag line: Doo bund zindagi ki- This one was decided quite early.


9. De
bashish Mondal: His fingers have shrinked while churning out creatives for BJP and other clients. He is the backbone of art department and spends more time in office than at home. Girls always surround him at work and he takes immense joy in it.
Tag line: Chivelry is not dead. (Only for WOMEN)

10. Rajat Sethi (RS): Party and RS go hand in hand; but the Rs. never comes out of his hand. He is the official CD for ART, but has never been a time when he really bossed upon us. Hope this settles his anger for the opening line. Thanks for giving us the freedom RS.
Calling him a buddy won’t be justified with the difference we share in our age and experience. We strike a good chord at work and play and hopefully it will remain in tune forever.
And last but not the least, sir we are never late, it is you who is early.
Tag line: The king of Good times.

11. Anurag Goel: He is the most hard working person in office. He sits idle the whole day and makes sure that the creatives deliver the work on time. Like every client servicing person, he opens a-new-rag (Anurag) every time.Expecting a brief from him is like expecting a man to be in labour pains. And expecting him to bargain a deadline with client is expecting a guy to deliver a baby. But what I like about him is the way he carries him self and he never gets angry. Truly, a gentleman’s trait.
Tag line: Sardard ki goli.


12. Yamini Chandra: I tell you about this girl. We have been in relation since a few months and it seems we have spent years together. She is hot. Our relationship is beyond words and is becoming rich day by day. I’m blessed to have a woman like her in my life. And before you think more about us and run your wild imagination, let me tell you that she is my Art Partner and not my life partner. This one is for you yamini: The world around me is spinning 24x7. Can I hold your hand????? Tag line: A diamond is forever.


13. Ritika Gautam: She is one step ahead of Anurag.
Tag line: Dobara mat puchna.



14. Mukesh Lekhwani: I'm the youngest person in office. I cant praise myself so i leave it on the people who visit this blog to write a few lines for me in comment book.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Life after MICA

It was 13th January, 2008 when I finally stepped out of the hell and heaven. Heaven because I was getting the best of education and hell because I was in the worst of company I could ever be. Unfortunately, there was no train for Delhi on 12th, so had to resist the trauma for another day. It happens ones in a lifetime or may be more, that you are stuck in a place which you cannot leave before a stipulated time period. Anyways I am not writing this to describe my bitter experiences at MICA.

Life after MICA has been fantastic. From the build up of my career to my muscles, everything has been great. The happiness which I was deprived off at MICA came back in a jiffy. But the uphill task ahead of me was to get a good job in a good agency and above all a good package.

I dint knew much about Murphy’s law, but after hearing the No Vacancy sound from the HR of every agency, I knew the law and Murphy from top to bottom. As it happens in every creative person’s life, ad agencies lose accounts when you are looking for job. And it feels even more reckless when every contact you have in the ad world wants you to have patience. What else can you ask for?

Scary were the nightmares I saw with my open eyes. The hunt for job not only gave me sleepless nights but also woke me up early in the morning. Forty wings were my only rescue throughout the day.

Luckily, (yes this soon) I got the job after a month and a half of marathon to the doors of almost all the agency in Delhi. And as they say in Hindi “Dene wala jab bhi deta, deta chappar phad ke”. I had 3 offers in my hand, one from Grey, another from Leo Burnett and the third from thehive- which is my present work place. I wish I could disclose the package of the former two.

Going with the name and the market reputation of Grey, I settled with them. But I guess it was not my destiny. My stint with Grey ended in a couple of months. If I don’t like it, then I part my ways with it and fortunately I was not bound to any time limits like I was at MICA.

Just a few days before I decided to quit, Dad gifted me a new car, yes a new one. An Indica Dicor-1.4, which speeds like a bullet and is light on the pocket, as it’s a diesel and gives an astounding 18 kmpl. Thanks Dad! This bought cherry back in my life. Cherry was my first love in college. No she didn’t come back but my car is Cherry color. (Bad PJ)

It was not hard for me to bid goodbye to Grey, as I had a very good opportunity still following me. “thehive”, the job which I rejected earlier. Lucky bastard am I, the post was still vacant with the same package. With no more delays, I quickly got on with it.

thehive is my third job in the ad world. In just a few months it has become an integral part of my life. There has not been a day when I wished to stay home and bunk office. I’m lucky to be working on clients like Archies (Gallery), MetLife Insurance and Himachal Tourism. And above all get the freedom to do out-of-the-box work for them.

Time has been traveling at a jet speed after MICA and I’m surprised to notice that graduation was a year old story. It is the time of my life when everything is going my way and I am hoping and praying and wishing that it continues the good way through out My life.