33rd EPISODE. This one from 1996-2000 period when I was at Lowe Lintas, New Delhi. It was one of the office parties, definitely not the ‘New Year’ party. Sharing the occasion or the venue may compromise the identity of people in this sensitive episode, so we will avoid that.
There was loud music, insane songs being played in loop, psychedelic lights, casually dressed males, smartly dressed females and drinks. Oh, there cannot be an advertising night out without drinks.
I have a problem; I can’t tolerate rhythmic loud music. So, in such parties I can be found outside the hall with my glass. Normally for unknown reason people I such events to go overboard and overestimate their capacity to drink. By 1:30- 2 a.m. someone or the other becomes a problem. That is the time you need sober people like me.
Time around 2 Am. I see this beautiful colleague walking toward me. She is a gone case. She comes near me, stabilizes herself clutching side railing, leans in and asks for a smoke. It was not the right time to discuss or advice. I took out Classic Mild and light it for her. She deeply inhales and tilts her head backward, slowly purposefully exhaling. She has glassy stoned far away look in her eyes. She gives me a long hard look.
Kotnala, why are you standing outside?
I can’t dance and I don’t like this music.
She takes a step back and looks at me. I follow her eyes. She looks at me top to bottom. Nods her head as if she has identified the problem. Or she knows I have told her the truth. She says nothing and takes another drag.
What you drinking
Whisky
Can I have a sip?
Silence
One sip, I am not drunk. I am just high. I know.
Silence.
She takes the glass from me. Looks at the color of drink. Looks at me. Shakes her head and gives me the drink. I am happy she seems to know she is high and she has decided enough was enough.
You are not like him
Silence
Saala, can’t *&$#ing dance but his hands do. I am friendly does not mean I am available. Does it?
Silence
I am surprised. She never uses such words. The drinks were making her lose it. She was not finished ‘ you know, he asked me if he could drop me home. I know what is in his mind. I can read men like this (and she clicks her fingers). But you are different. Kotnala, would you drop me home.’
She did not said who he was. I was supposed to understand the unsaid. I was not sure what being different meant here. I knew where she lived and that was in opposite direction for me. Yet I agreed, she was one of the sweetest people I knew. She hurriedly stubbed her cigarette and we left.
During the ride, she was in overdrive. Holding my hand she was making me uncomfortable. She was sharing what I did not want to know. Why she is the way she is. Why she drinks. What is her unsaid relationship with him? Why she tolerates things in life. Why she loves and hates her family members. What work and success mean to her. How much she adores him. The discussion could go round and round and yet would come back to him. By the time we reached her place, she was high as in HIGH and I had to part hold, part push her to the her floor. I pressed the bell and after some persistent ringing her father opened the door. She was strongly leaning on me and I was holding her by the waist that was the only way she could stand. Seeing her in this condition, her father wasted no time in taking charge.
I thought her father would thank me but he turned back and gave me a lecture full of questions.
Who are you? Where do you stay? Is it sensible to drink? Why do you all allow girls to drink like this? Don’t you have any sense? Can’t you party without drinks? You mean you could not see that she was getting high. You mean you could not stop her. What if something wrong could have happened? What kind of office you have those parties so late? Don’t you have arrangements for girls to be dropped home?
I just stood there. There was no point speaking. I could have asked him a lot many troubling questions. Do you know why you daughter drinks? Do you know why she is out? Do you know- why she has no male friends at this age? Do you know what she thinks of you all? Do you… do you?
But all I did was to listen to the old man. I walked down the stairs and left for home.
The best part was saved for next day. This beauty now completely sober with no visible signs of yesterday drunken state walks into my cabin and hands me a chocolate. I take that as thank you and then she breaks my heart by saying. ‘He said you dropped me home last night… thanks’. Before I could reply she adds ‘ Hope, I was not much of trouble … anyway I have to hurry for lunch, He is waiting’.
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Advertising and marketing Episodes
● Rain Clause – I ● Lethal Combination ● APPETITE ● Puncture ● Adultery- the moment ● ASSET ● I am Sankar ● The Count ● Introduction ● Time Bomb ● Small Tile ● Shoot Report ● Sardar Khush Hoga ● Shoot At Mud Island ● Kaali Peeli Picture ● Upgrade ● Juhi Effect ● Power Of Punjab ● Out ● Two More ● Eleven Minutes ● The Cherry Win ● The Presentation ● Black Gold ● Buffered ● Continue With Client ● Not Fired ● One Less Decision ● The Ghost Of 35 Rani Jhansi Road Jhandewalaon ● The Problem ● Imported Art Card ● Banyan Tree Agency
