I'm back, tired, sleepy, drained and in office. Post a long arduous train journey, I reached back home late last night. The colour out of my face and the shine out of my hair. But nevertheless, a fruitful, enriching journey which helped me somewhat to recreate my family tree right till my great grandfather and a trip which brought to my knowledge several legends and stories part of the Vedas, the most important and consecrated collection of books for us Hindus. However, despite being so heavily slumber-starved I sit down to post this blog, which has now become a cardinal part of my life.

First things first, I recently posted something about an old female friend on this very blog, thereby compromising her identity. I admit that it was an indisposed oversight on my behalf. Although the necessary adjustments have been made, the damage is done. It has come to my knowledge that the friend in question, (though no more even an acquaintance in the right sense of the word) was understandably perturbed. My sincere apologies and shall be more discrete from time on.

While surfing the net the other day, I chanced upon the following video:-

Yehi Hi Hai Right Choice Baby, Aha!, agreeably the oldest and hugely successful Pepsi Commercial featuring Aamir Khan and Aishwarya Rai along with Mahima Choudhary (before being discovered by a certain Mr. Ghai), the former two having ever since moved on to endorsing competitors, possibly owing allegiance to fatter pay packets and the latter simply disappeared from public eye. Withal what stayed was the impressive product packaging of the soft drink giant, constantly recycling brand ambassadors and introducing new campaigns thick and fast, the latest being the Youngistan melange. But I must admit I have been a connoisseur of famous TV commercials.

Among my top favourites is the Happy Dent White muskura le, jagmaga le commercial. It's hilarious as a visual and absolutely creative, who could have thought a teeth-whitening gum as an alternative to lamps, what visualization. The jingle itself is very catchy. The next mention here is of the Fevicol commercial where the tribal lady tries in vain to get her naughty kid to settle down and finally manages by seating the troublemaker on a drum of fevicol, where as expected the child stays put, with its ageless tag, yeh fevicol ka jod hai, tutega nahi. An example of amusing creativity. Then the Fevikwik Ad where an uneducated fisherman put drops of Fevikwik on his fishing rod and manages to catch fish on it, with the tagline, chutki me chipkaye.

A TV advertisement is a very tricky medium. A 20-second slot has to manage being entertaining, catchy, informative as well as subtle. It is a sumptuous task to package all that in 20-seconds. It has to be targeted at a segment in such a manner that shall induce the viewer to go and buy the product. Nevertheless, now that the advertising industry is so hugely organised and progressive, creative copywriters have been churning jingles, taglines, commercials with amazing dedication. Years ago also there have been so many ads worth a mention. Lalitaji crafted by Alyque Padmasee, Humara Bajaj, Mile Sur mera tumhara, Lifebuoy, Boost is the secret of my energy, Tan ki Shakti mann ki shakti Bournvita. More recent, the Badhiya Hai Ad of a paint company, The Kya aap close-up karte hain? jingle, the recent Essar-Hutch-Vodafone, You and I with the pug, the iconic Airtel-tune credit to Golden Globe Rehman have been constantly catching our imagination.

Probably as the godfather of the Indian TV commercial industry is Alyque Padamsee, hugely remebered for the Kamasutra condoms Advert featuring a well-known model as well as for his role of Mohd. Ali Jinnah in Ben-Kingsley's Oscar winner Gandhi. Amongst more recent icons in this industry is adman-poet-bollywood lyricist-dialogue writer Prasoon Joshi, a name I salute for his multi-tasking personality and for the ocean of creativity. Though his works mostly proliferate in Hindi, I believe that creativity has no language. I myself, have been writing in English, Hindi and Urdu for a very long time, though I must admit none of it has been commercially viable, not that I ever tried to sell my stuff, not that I ever cared.

Prasoon started some odd-twenty years ago with O&M a well known name in the industry after which he moved on to McCann where he worked with Ad Guru Piyush Pandey and crafted some amazing Advertising campaigns including the hugely popular series for Coca-Cola, sporting the Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola tagline with Aamir Khan again, for which he won the Cannes Lion Award.