Coming back from a long vacation, it was only fair that January be as exciting as a post budget Sensex. A bugle call for a team meeting and a round of applause for the new business win flagged things off. Happy was chosen as the worthy partner by Diesel, and the account was finally active. Thanks to the new Diesel campaign, “Be Stupid” became the official buzzword. Soon, status messages were just ridiculous modifications of the Stupid philosophy. The office was alive with buzz, deadlines and a little seen phenomenon at Happy – conference room discussions, neat plans and charts, media schedules and table sheets. Happy started resembling a local liaison office of the FBI. Carrom games started becoming a rarity. An increasingly grumpy Vimal made gallons of black coffee. Vidu let go of his PG accommodation to move into the office. Gopi was fighting with existential dilemmas. The studio would’ve easily been mistaken for a forward camp in Iraq. It was settled once and for all that the relative superiority of a Mac or a PC depended on the humanware using it. After many a late night and skipped public holidays, we finally delivered the goods. The client loved it. Party is what the doctor ordered, and boy, we had a lot of them coming up.
First it was Namita’s birthday, and Praveen was a more-than-happy host for the whole Happy bunch. People drank, danced and drank more. Sharat’s mission to Kerala was as happy as a Karan Johar movie (no, not his latest one), and he returned with his bride to Bangalore for the reception planned for all and sundry. Needless to say, the Happy bunch decided to add this to their list of parties. Once more, Kartik’s Scorpio was tanked up, and in no time, we were all at the reception. But for Rishi’s love-at-first-sight encounter (almost), the evening was devoid of any interesting events.
The mood for revelries continued as there were back-to-back birthdays of Rishi and Sanaa. At Happy, we have perfected the soon-to-be-Olympic-event of cake smashing. More cake is smeared on the face of the birthday boy/girl than is consumed. The victim could also be an over enthusiastic spectator of the action (it is commendable that the intended victims take it with all the dignity possible and even make valedictory speeches). It’s the same with rain, rape and cake smashing. If you can’t escape it, enjoy it.
Last on the list of the parties was the mother of them all. It was our very own Sankalpa’s wedding. This party ended up being special because the Happy bunch decided that the night was still young, and came back to the office at midnight and worked (drank too). The next day was the Matrix day at happy. People were spotted wearing all sorts of shades possible. As people sipped coffee, lemon tea and made frequent trips to the toilets, one thing was clear – all work and all play makes jack a jackass. Meanwhile, there were two curious characters who were hanging around the Happy office. One was a budding illustrator from Baroda, and the other, a lawyer who probably got confused between copyright and copywriting.
The month had a few more deadlines in store. Deadlines of a different sort. For once, we didn’t have to fry our brain cells and be creative for this. We just had to send out the fruits of our hard labour for the Asia Adfest. Sharat was back from his wedding break, and got on to filling the online forms straightaway. There were some last minute photographs to be taken, desperate phone calls for authorization letters, and by evening, it was all done. The payments were made, forms filled and packages were sent just in time. All that is left now is to keep our fingers crossed. And to hope that there will be more celebrations (not to mention, alcohol) coming our way.
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