By Rayomand J Patell
So there I was, a five years in the biz Cub writer in front of Kersy Katrak himself.
Since nobody will know who he was, let me say it was like being in front of an older Anselmo Ramos.
Kersy’s agency had dominated the desi scene in the Seventies. He’d won everything there was to win at all the award shows of the time. When MCM, his uber hot agency came to an end, at least 10 new agencies that became mainstream giants were born out of his agency folk. So yeah… no pressure on yours truly!
He had almost entirely retired by the time I met him at the Worli office of Rediff where he sat then, a legend enjoying the autumn of his life but yet very interested, very keen, very sharp.
I’d gone to him to show him my work as a way of figuring if I had long term potential or whether I should just pack it in and be the lawyer my parents always thought I should have been.
And so on the phone he’d told me to come by with some of my work.
This drove me into a complete tizzy.
All of it, was suddenly not worth showing. I had a complete panic attack and called him up to tell him so.
And then he completely disarmed me by saying, “show me what you can create, rather than what your agency can sell, Rayo!”
OH man. That one line changed my life and in turn I’ve used it in every interview ever since when on the other side of the table.
I walked into Kersy’s cabin a complete bag of nerves and was trembling more than a jelly bowl does. He put me at ease and from four p.m., we spoke till about nine or maybe ten p.m.
It was the single most inspiring meeting I’ve ever had in my life.
We talked abut life, the universe and everything. We talked of cabbages and kings. We talked about lyrics of songs. Beatles. Dylan. Hendrix. Jazz musicians. History. Art. Culture. Science. Innovation. Cars. Jack Kerouac. Beat poetry. Politics. Countries. Cities. His fondness for food. My fondness for food. (Put two Parsis together and this is bound to show up.) Who he admired. What they were currently doing. Everything under the sun. But, advertising. And that was the greatest lesson of them all. That it was life and all of it, that drove the best advertising.
Somewhere at the fag end of it he asked me to show him my stuff. I could scarcely breathe as I showed him all my stuff that hadn’t gone through but which I was very proud of all the same. My little Rotomac campaign. Some bits on Parle. Some scripts on Tortoise mosquito coils. And when he nodded enthusiastically my heart thumped and when he pointed out a fly in the ointment which I hadn’t seen, it was SO gently done, I felt I was in the presence of a great Master, so evolved, that I couldn’t at all feel any ego. I was learning at the speed of empathy if that’s possible.
At the end he said, “you have a gift with words.” Please use it all your life. It will always make you happy. Don’t worry about selling just now, keep writing. Hone your craft.
I had walked into his room an advertising novice of five years roughly. I left his room with a feeling that I belonged. That one meeting changed my life, it made me never doubt ever again that advertising was going to be my lifelong career – and it changed my job because it gave me the courage to eventually move on to SSC&B Lintas, the hottest shop of that era.
In the next episode, I’m going to write about what a modern portfolio should contain, but this one was abut remembering and cherishing that one meeting, that showed me what inspiration really means in this business. I hope that you find a similar Kersy who builds you up in your life.
Rayomand J Patell is an advertising veteran and InspiRAYtion is a weekend column on everything about advertising and marketing.