#365DaysOfWriting — Day Seventy-Two
An abnormally long day (and night)…
Dear Bangalore (or Bengaluru — but I prefer Bangalore),
I apologise.
I came to your city with the hope of at least catching up with a few friends, and seeing a few sites.
But I had no time. All of it was consumed by work.
I’m still sitting in office as I write this. I think this is the first post I’ve written sitting in an office.
I’m visiting your city just as a coincidence, on work, after 24 years. But I can’t even call this serendipity — that would’ve happened only if, by a HAPPY coincidence, I had actually experienced your city outside the four walls of an office.
That’s what advertising does to you sometimes. We live so much for brands that we forget to live for ourselves. As this exchange between Naseeruddin Shah and Farhan Akhtar goes in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (it’s not verbatim, forgive me if there are errors in this — it is 3 AM after all):
Naseer: Karte kya ho?
Farhan: Likhta hoon…
Naseer: Achcha? Kya likhte ho, zara sunao.
Farhan: Jee main copywriter hoon, advertising mein.
Naseer: Achcha? Matlab tum dusron ke liye likhte ho… APNE liye kya likhte ho?
*Sigh* I suppose things work out in weird ways. Maybe one day we will truly meet Bangalore. And on that day, it will be just us. No one else. That I can promise you.
Yours (un)faithfully,
Advertising Man
