The First Lie
Almost ten years ago I had written a book called Life in a Rectangle . It was all about my days in an advertising agency in Kolkata, called Clarion Advertising Services Ltd. There was something unique about the agency. When I joined in 1976 as a 'chhokra boy', meaning a trainee whose pay scale was lower than the lift man - who anyways saluted me, though I should have been the one to salute him - the agency was an employee owned company and a Left-intellectual hub. Despite all such anamolies, we were amongst the top four agencies in India. Of course, Martin Sorell was not knighted yet, with none of the mess of the agency ownerships and had not turned the business into a La La Land. In fact, he was probably still selling buckets. Well, even Maurice and Charles had not replaced the Grim(m) Brothers and agencies were not in the habit of kicking out their owners, as they did later to the Satchi bhais and even later, to Martin. Karma. I did not mention that Clarion did worse....