Rajesh goes back to advertising. Happy goes back to school.

Last week, we had another reason to take a break from work, football and recession, and just play like kids again. A farewell party for Rajesh. Now when all of us had thought bubbles about ol’ monk, potato chips and chicken, Praveen suggested we have a costume party. And promptly Kartik suggested a theme of fantasies: Back to School. We had just about half a day to get our stuff together, and man, did we get our act together the next morning! Sharat’s family got blacklisted by the apartment committee. Auto drivers fought to give Bhavna a ride. Jayan’s face looked like skinned chicken. Praveen got stopped by traffic cops. And our neighbours kept their kids indoors. None of us could wait for the evening. We all sat at the edge of our seats like we were all forbidden our bathroom breaks. Rishi and Sanaa flew paper planes. Loki kept polishing his shoes. And Jayan fought with Pradeep over a Lollipop. For those wondering where the man of the hour was, we are still not sure where he went. Rajesh went missing during lunch and showed up 4 hours later – high-spirited and mad. He hugged the innocence out of every school kid and brought the Happy house down with his ridiculous amount of cheer. And then the bell rang. All the kids lined up for the class photo. Rajesh gave not one, but a hundred speeches – about Happy, about Kartik, about Praveen, about Ogilvy, about Iyer and Das at Happy. Overwhelmed from all the nursery rhymes dedicated to him, Rajesh got up on a chair, stood tall and sang the English alphabet song and almost got it right. No one knows whose bright idea it was to have an arm wrestling tournament at 11 at night. But in 15 seconds we were all on our knees, wrestling it out for the top prize: Respect. Loki beat a football star. Sharat let Sanaa win. Kartik forfeited. And Ram remained the undefeated arm wrestling champion, giving him enough reason to do what he loves best – dancing. All of us joined him indoors to save the neighbours from further damage. Praveen danced with the wall clock. Rajesh bumped into everyone. Pradeep rocked it with Jayan, forgetting the Lollipop incident. Some things just never get old at Happy. Whatever said and done, Rajesh will leave a void at Happy. Of roadside noodles, bad jokes, trekking stories and the general (infectious) enthusiasm. We wish him all the very best for his next big journey at McCann-Erickson and may he always be happy.

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