38th EPISODE. One of my brightest juniors settled abroad, shares what I share with you today. It is completely her piece. I have used minimalistic creative license to patch-up at few places. Think she gave me that liberty by saying ‘okay. Trying to think through that episode quickly. I am sure you can expand these into a story 🙂 ‘
It was Mcleodgunj. And till date, I am not sure if it was we getting confused or was it really something else…. You know what I mean. I think there were six of us on that trip. It is one of the road trips, while working at an advertising agency in Delhi. A ‘Punjab Haryana’ market visit for the brand of leading newspaper. At the end in our enthusiasm and with due agreement of the client, a side trip to Mcleodgunj was added.
It was evening when we reached. The trip was a last minute decision but we managed to find a decent enough hotel to stay. I remember my room it had blue carpets. I still can pick that shade; odd and somewhat creepy blue, very unlike standard carpet colors in standard hotels.
Pic theviewspaper.com
You know the evening team bonding rituals in such trips. The teams regroup instead of retiring. The tougher the trip higher is the enthusiasm to bond. Post dinner we all gathered in the Marketing Directors room. As expected the conversation was meandering for no reason it moved on to discussing paranormal spooky incidents. The tired souls could not carry any further and started leaving for their rooms. At the end, I was the last person getting ready to leave when it happened. The door was wide open. As we said our good nights, I think I saw somebody walk by. He went crossing the door- left to right. The way led to end of the corridor. I checked with the client. He agreed he saw someone walk by.
To understand the situation, I need to orient you with the floor we were staying. This floor had three rooms on this side of the corridor. The side the walking man went. The first room is where I was standing. The next room occupied by our team members. We did not know if the last room was occupied or not.
The first thing that crossed our mind was that team members were trying to play a prank. It happens. Therefore, we decided to tell them to stop playing silly tricks. They opened the door and definitely seemed surprised. They in turn, blamed us in trying to play a prank. They were adamant that they straight went to sleep and none of them went out of the room.
Now it was easy to infer that it must have been someone in the last room. Not part of our team. However, we had not seen and heard anyone in that direction. There was a simple way to check. We checked with the reception, which was really a night guard in duty. He was sure that the last room was unoccupied. We were now a confused lot. Two people including the client were confident seeing someone walk past at that very late hour going in the direction that has no where to go. No explanation was available. No one had any logical answer to, who it might have been and where did it go.
The team now was clearly too spooked to dare sleeping separately. All six of us (Now is the number SIX not the Devil’s number!) decided to stick together and spend the night in one room. It was also decided that one/two of us will take turns to guard the room. And we were leaving with the first set of sunrays hitting Mcleodganj.
No one wanted to sleep or rather no one wanted to be on guard duty. Hence, the night was spent sharing mostly non-spooky stories. Every now and then, we contemplated fleeing the hotel but think better sense prevailed.
I still prefer to not remember that episode. We were later able to see through a pattern or lets say a lot many coincidences during the trip. While coming to Mcleodganj we missed all the temples/monasteries/holy places that we wanted to visit. We took a wrong turn or they were closed or something else happened- but everything prevented us to be blessed that night
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ADDON. I recall a young enthusiast client-servicing executive sharing the experience with me. What was missed is a small side chapter. At one of the sunset point, whenever a picture was taken with this executive an ill-defined smoky human shape was also captured. Everyone thought it was the finger next to the lenses. But no other picture had this problem. On advice of a senior member, all such pictures were deleted. If they were to go without deleting the pictures, they would have carried that energy with them. Maybe they were right.
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OTHER ADVERTISING MARKETING EPISODES
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● Punjabi Lintas – Amrit Puri takes over Lintas ● Delayed launch – Why HT Delhi Colour supplement launch was delayed ● UNDERGROUND – Printing fake currency could have led to jail ● Strategic rain Break – How ZID KARO DHONI film was shot ● Thank You ● Rain Clause – I – The fight with Whitelight film over Maruti film ● Lethal Combination ● APPETITE – It does not matter where you get the appetite till you eat at home ● Puncture – how not to get caught ● Adultery- the moment – Its all for you to decide how far you would go ● ASSET – how a famous Indian model was rejected ● I am Sankar – soft ragging of new trainee ● The Count ● Introduction ● Time Bomb – How to avoid embarrassing situation ● Small Tile – eye for detail ● Shoot Report ● Sardar Khush Hoga ● Shoot At Mud Island ● Kaali Peeli Picture – what do you do you’re your model is featured in Debonair ● Upgrade ● Juhi Effect – there is something called lady luck in gambling ● Power Of Punjab ● Out – let game be game ● Two More – how not to pay for the drinks ● Eleven Minutes ● The Cherry Win ● The Presentation ● Black Gold ● Buffered ● Continue With Client ● Not Fired ● One Less Decision ● High jacking the Goafest delegates ● The Ghost Of 35 Rani Jhansi Road Jhandewalaon ● The Problem ● Imported Art Card ● Banyan Tree Agency
