Never too late...

It's been after a very long time that I finally logged in to my blog and decided like always to make attempts to be regular with it.

It's one platform where you do not really have to construct your thoughts in a perfect fashion before sharing. So thought of making the most of it.

Won't really stick to any one topic henceforth.

To start with, working on saturday in an ad agency is not that bad. The atmosphere is not that of a hurry curry as on usual days. The music is on througout and you have the luxury to work at ease.

As for me, I started my day at work with a real estate site visit. Wasn't bad at all. Attention span was intact since the open air made me feel quite calm and at peace with myself. (unlike when confined in an A.C. enclosed four walls where I literally go squint trying to look into the eyes of the person talking or making the presentation).

Planning to take the rest of the day slow and get going with jobs I am trying to park for sometime now. Intend to do some thinking now!

Wow Women

Fathers’ Day, Mothers’ Day, Valentine’s Day and also a Women’s Day! We often feel all this is just a reflection of the western culture. Ways and means for the greetings cards and the gift shops to earn bucks. We never had these days before. But the good side of it, we women at least feel recognized on one of the 365 days. I really am proud being a woman. Not being feminist, but to come to think of it, I now am able to look deeper into the beautiful intricacies of being a woman.

It’s only a woman who can happily give up her career because of her new life or ‘coz of a new member coming into the life; leave her parents and friends back and accept the family and friends of her husband as hers to a large extent. It doesn’t’ go onto say that she severs all her ties with her loved ones, but she accommodates a whole lot of new individuals into her close knit circle. As though suddenly she needs to create some more space in her own small world, where till date she carefully picked up the ones she wanted to be a part of it, but not so anymore. She quickly manages to place the individuals in her world keeping the order of her world intact.

It’s amazing even to think of it as to how we women can do all of it happily, without a frown. At least now we are blessed with more understanding and loving husbands who treat you as an equal but think of the times when our grandmothers would make such sacrifices without realizing or being acknowledged for their selfless contribution.

I just happened to come across an article today on organizations introducing flexi working hours for women so that they can strike a balance back home and at the workplace. I really hope more and more organizations introduce such policies. We can’t deny that there are some incredible women professionals who are assets to the organizations. Therefore in the interest of the organization and the nation as a whole these policies should be actively implemented across industries.

We are blessed; let us create opportunities that would spread success, happiness and fulfillment!

Glorified Peons??!! The challenge is tough…

Every account manager has come across this phrase at some point or the other. There are times it feels really thankless but you got to work towards making the difference I believe, and that’s what differentiates you and prevents you from being called a glorified peon.

Unlike a person in the creative department whose nature of work naturally gives his image an edge, the profile of account managers especially at junior levels is such that people automatically tend to refer to you as peons, unless you add that big extra bit to your work.
So, it’s the profile not me…(That makes me feel better).

I hate it most when people refer to Account Management as Servicing. It makes me feel like an A.C. servicing guy who visits us to find out if all’s working fine.

Question is how do you add that extra bit to all accounts? Not all clients are interested in proactive presentations which have often been referred to as gyan. End of the day a client is happy with more and more and more options of layouts. There are times they don’t even want the explanation with the creatives we present. Although they have a strong logic there, that they don’t present explanations and rationales to our consumers when they view an ad.

So what more? When I come across ads or news articles of competition then at best I scan them and pass it on to my senior. I am often confused does the client appreciate receiving a scanned copy of what competition is up to. Wouldn’t he think I know my category the best and I do keep a track of what’s happening… Confusion again!

I always wonder why aren’t there awards for the best account manager of the year, award for the most patient account manager of the year, award for the most organized account manager of the year and the like…Or do they exist?

That one boat ride...

Growing up outside Kolkata, I have never really been exposed to the Bengali culture completely. Off late, strangely I find myself quite fascinated with folk songs, baul and the like. I pine for a boat ride at dawn.

A time when most of us are fast asleep. The shutters are down. All you hear are the birds and may be the cycle bell of a newspaper or a milk vendor. It’s a lovely sight when you get to see the day break. That’s when I wish for a boat ride.

The boat rider will be gentle while asking me to make myself comfortable and address me as didimuni. (Unlike the grumpy cab or auto drivers, I start my day with). He will ask me, didmuni theek kore dhorey boshechen toh? (Didimuni, hope you are holding on). From a distant I wish to hear a placid and a faint baul song. (Quite like an old Bengali film).

The Baul song will talk about how we all think of the uncertainties in our life, not get answers to the same and move on expecting the desirable. It will talk about the positive energy and how there are good things, good people, good deeds still happening in this big bad world. (don't know if there's a song like this. If I were a lyricist, would write a song like this).

The boat will sail closer to the hanging branches of trees full of chirping birds on them. I wish to listen to it while I am sailing through. It will be almost like sailing though the ups and downs of my life in that one boat ride.

Stayin' Alive

I believe there are 2 kinds of bloggers -
The habitual ones, the other (very few I suppose) are those who blog only when there’s something that has probably made some difference to their daily life, needless to say I belong to the latter.

Life has got so numb that most of the things around us tend to go unnoticed. But guess to keep our souls alive, we really need to condition ourselves in a way where our surroundings touch us in some way. Else the numbness is fast spreading and each of us will end up cocooned in our own mind space.

It feels nice to observe things happening around, the smaller bits building our daily lives. It’s a breath of fresh air in our overcrowded clustered minds.

The Shinchan in her

Chit chats in office are my favourite. It gives me the zeal to get back to my workstation.

The other day a friend of mine came to me and we actually started with discussing one of our brands. A dummy was kept aside that reminded her of how as a kid in school she was taught to make a drum (dhaak).

Then she went onto telling me a series of incidents from her childhood. Frankly I found them hilarious. Her family members would literally tear their hair when my friend would go around the house beating the drum she made herself. (…it’s like literally beating her own drum!)

She observed exactly how her grandfather would lie on the bed for a nap in the afternoon. She would go and stick a chewing gum exactly at that position. When her grandfather would get up in the evening he actually would get up with the entire bed cover stuck onto him.

Sitting next to him watching TV she would suddenly pour chilled water on her grandfather’s lap from a bottle she had been holding on for some time.

The most hilarious thing I found was when she said as a kid she was quite short and she found the cows in her backyard quite scary when she stood in front of them. Once when she was up to her usual mischief her mother picked her up and put her in the tub from which a cow eats. Finding a kid in the tub instead of his usual food the cow found it quite strange which got it closer to her. She said it was a horrifying experience for her to see the cow’s head bending towards her with its jaws moving up and down.

Listening to her I now miss being a naughty kid. It’s fun being mischievous I am sure. it's fun being a Shinchan at heart!

Always on a lookout

Off late I was getting a headache every evening. After procrastinating for long I finally decided to visit the doc. With every lens the doc slipped into the frame for checking I confused him more and more with what my actual reading was.
I got so fed up with it that I started mugging up the letters they would ask me to look from at a distance and read. The doc would call his assistant and shout at her as to how every time she is giving a different reading to the doc. So I finally decided to cooperate and the doc told me I have cylindrical power.
I got my glasses in less than a week. But hated wearing them and had already decided to take contact lens. The doc said I would have to go for rigid and not soft lens due to the kind of power I have.
He said I have to come for regular sittings for trials with the lens. There I met this lady who taught me the tricks of the trade.
We got talking every evening. I had to leave office early every day. During the trials my phone would surely ring at least once. One day she asked me so where do you work?
The moment I said for an ad agency she enquired if there’s a vacancy for her. I was quite surprised thinking why would an eye specialist want to shift to an ad agency? Her expressions said it all.
I wondered the frustration was so high that an eye specialist was ready to move onto an ad agency or is it the love for the industry?