Tara Sinha - Doyenne of Indian Advertising

 I had the privilege of working with two of the legends of Indian Advertising when I started my career with Clarion McCann advertising way back in 1964, which laid a solid foundation to my long advertising career. One was with late Subroto Senguta and another with the `Icon of  advertising in India, Tara Sinha. While Sengupta was a hard core advertising professional who believed in systems and procedures, Tara Sinha had a brilliant creative mind who was constantly innovating. If she thought she had a good idea she would go all out to sell it to the clients. Very often some of the ideas would occur to her a few hours or a few days before a major presentation and the entire staff would have to gear themselves to junk whatever they had done until then and start working all over again on her new idea. When somebody would take the courage and point out about the paucity of time she would say` Don`t worry, I have got one day extension from the client. We have extra 24 hours to work on our new idea.`

Those were days when everything had to be done manually- no modern technology to provide  instant solutions to any problem you faced. But the Team, inspired by her leadership would always deliver the goods.

As an innovator she had contributed two big ideas to the industry. When she was in Clarion, Bombay, she introduced the concept of Media Planning, for the first time in Indian advertising, when media departments were handled by managers who were good at producing media estimates with rates negotiated with publications. I remember she persuaded Praveen Desai, who had introduced some innovative media ideas as a media manger in LIC,  to join Clarion and head the Media Planning division. 

When  she moved to Delhi to head ACIL (Advertising Consultants of India Ltd.), the new sister unit of Clarion, she was looking for people. She also  wanted to experiment with her new idea of separating planning and operations functions in the ad agency .Though ACIL was formed primarily to handle public sector accounts, thanks to Tara Sinha’s reputation and connections, ACIL had on its roster of clients, big MNC names like Nestlé and Coke While I was working in Grant K & E in Bombay, she persuaded me to join ACIL in Delhi as her first GM(Planning). GM Planning was the fore runner to the concept of Account Director which became very popular in later years.

A brilliant person who was also a very demanding professional she did not tolerate fools and had no patience for laggards. A tall & impressive Sardarni  she would breeze into the office, always attired in a graceful sari creating vibrations as she walked up to her office room. As long as she was in the office there would be tension in the air. She could be extremely charming when she wanted something tough to be done or ruthless when somebody made mistakes or did not keep up promises. I know of many executives those days who quit their jobs unable to take the pressure from her.

 I was one of the survivors. Impressed by my man management skills she had promoted me as her Deputy Chief Executive within a year of my joining ACIL. While I was delighted at getting an unexpected promotion, when I was just 30, I was totally unprepared for her exit from ACIL within a few months. After a confrontation with the Clarion Management she quit ACIL to join Coca Cola, an important client of ACIL. Overnight my boss became my client. Instead of filling up her vacancy with an outsider, the Clarion management requested me to hold the fort, promoting me as General Manager/CEO of ACIL with the mandate to ensure that no client or senior staff left the company. Stepping into the larger than life shoes of Tara Sinha and occupying the corner room at 18, Hanuman Road in Delhi was initially very daunting. I managed to survive those turbulent but very challenging  two years until the management decided to bring another senior manager within the clarion group to take over from me and I decided to move to Chennai on transfer.

Once during our travel to meet an outstation client, Tara Sinha advised me on the type of girl I should marry. Because I was a successful adman and had a bright future, she felt that my life partner should be a smart and capable girl. She said, “Marry a girl who will be comfortable entertaining clients at home. She must be sophisticated enough to be able to socialize with the wives of the clients.” In other words, she wanted me to marry a girl who could support my career. Ultimately, I decided to marry a girl of my parent’s choice, who turned out to be a wonderful home maker but did not pass muster with my boss on the social front. 

I distinctly remember the day in 1966, when she handed over a letter informing me of my first promotion as an Account Executive in Clarion, Bombay and  told me, `Rajan- So far you have been a back room boy. From today you will be the front line man taking on bigger responsibilities- All the best!`  I never realized that day that she would  be responsible for two other big job promotions in my  life. The one she gave me when she made me her Deputy Chief Executive and another, ironically and indirectly, by quitting her job with ACIL to make way for me to occupy her position.

After I shifted to Chennai in 1974, I lost touch with her. Over the years I would meet her in some conferences or seminars but never kept in touch with her. She went on to leave her footprints on the sands of time in Coca Cola, Clarion, McCann Erickson and many other industry bodies. The only woman who probably wore a saree to work at Coca-Cola's HQ. My autobiography `Courage My Companion` has a whole chapter dedicated to my association with Tara Sinha.

 In spite of many controversies surrounding her as a professional, she remained a towering personality in the world of advertising highly respected by the industry and revered by hundreds of people, like me, whose lives she touched. I had learnt the important life lesson of having the courage of conviction in whatever I did from her.

May her soul rest in peace!

An edited version of this article has appeared in the Hindu Business Line issue dated 14^th December,2019.

Battle of the bulge

The other day I saw a friend doing some exercises on the parapet wall at the beach front in  Besant Nagar . He was on his all fours with his protruding belly dangling prominently to the twists and turns that he was attempting. It was a sight to behold. I stopped and asked him the purpose of the exercise. He said that he was trying his best to reduce his tummy and look trim. I know that he has been trying to do this for several years without luck. I wished him good luck and moved on. It brought back memories of my own bulging tummy and my efforts  to reduce it for several decades.

Before I acquired a bulging tummy also known as a `paunch`, I was a thin guy. My waist was so slim that even a baby belt would not hold my pants. I used to wrap a piece of cloth around my waist and then pull up my pants to ensure that it did not slip down.

There is a story behind how I acquired the `paunch`. Throughout my student days and the early part of my career, my mother tried her best to help me put on weight. She forced me to eat vegetables & fruits. She would roast a few  badam kernels  and give it to me every morning with butter.  I was also given extra quantity of milk to consume in the nights. Nothing worked. What she could not achieve for a decade, happened during my stay at Murugan Lodge in Calcutta where I gorged on the delicious meals they served.  I had spent three months in Calcutta undergoing a training in advertising at the second largest advertising agency at that time. During my stay as a trainee I was also introduced to drinking beer. I was told that as an adman I would have to do a lot of entertaining and drinking alcohol was a pre requisite for a successful adman. In three months not only did I learn about the advertising business but also learnt  how to gulp down three bottles of beer without any problems. My tryst with the bulging `Madhya Pradesh` started in Calcutta  which eventually became  an integral part of my body. In the early years, girls in my office used to call me `roly- poly`. My efforts to reduce the tummy over the years were not successful because of my inability to control my eating and drinking habits.

However, I found that my tummy was a great asset when my four grand children through my daughters arrived in this world in quick succession between 1996 to 2003.. My `Thoppai` as they would call my bulging tummy was their play ground. All that I had to do was lay still on my back exposing my  Thoppai. They will go berserk playing with it . One of them would  play drums  on it, another one would  give it a massage and the third one would  give it an imaginary  bath using appropriate sound effects. It was a joy beyond compare. For a change I was happy to possess a Thoppai.

Eventually, my Thoppai` did shrink,  after the  two hospitalization experiences I went through about five years ago and lost about 10kgs in six months. While I am fighting hard to ensure that I maintain my reduced weight, I am happy that the smaller bulge in my `Madhya Pradesh` has allowed me to reuse half a dozen tight fitting pants that I had stopped wearing.

A small victory in my `Battle of the bulge`!

This article has appeared in the Adyar Times issue dated December, 06-14, 2019

Instant meals on line

What Amazon, Flipkart and a few others have done to online shopping, Swiggy, Zomato, Uber eats and others have done for the way we order, ready to eat food. A service  very popular among the younger generation. No problem entertaining  guests who  make sudden visits or even invited visits during meal times; with cuisines of their choice- Chinese,  Punjabi, South Indian,  Continental or even a`Combo`. All supplied at your doorstep within 30 to 45 minutes of ordering online.

The other day we got a call that a few relatives were dropping in to see my  resident grandson.It was nearing dinner time.  As a person who believes in entertaining guests to home cooked meals, I was wondering what to do. My son told me. ` Don`t worry, Appa. I will order food on Swiggy. Instead of wasting our time in the kitchen, we can spend it talking to the guests`. When I was concerned about laying the table and getting the serving bowls ready, he assured me that all the items come packed neatly in ready to serve containers. All that we have to keep on the table are  dinner plates, spoons , forks and a few serving spoons.  It is that simple .

My mind travelled back to the times when I would  host friends for dinner at home.  My wife  was good at cooking meals for even 20 to 30 people. On the day of the dinner the preparations would start from early morning. We would plan the menu based on which I would buy the vegetables and other items.  It was my responsibility to lay the table, get all the crockeries and other items cleaned and arranged neatly on the table- generally keep the house ready for receiving the guests while my wife would be busy in the kitchen. When it was dinner time, I would also help in filling up the cooked items in serving bowls and ensure refills regularly as the dinner progressed. I was not an MCP like most of the husbands of my time were but a 50:50 partner who believed in extending whatever help I could to my wife. Though it was  physically challenging, I used to enjoy what I was doing. At the end of the evening when guests left after thoroughly enjoying a delicious home cooked meal and praised us for the love and affection with which it was served,  our day was made. My wife, who would initially grumble about having to cook for so many people would be happy at the end of the day because of the appreciation she received  from the guests. We felt that all the hard work had paid off.

As we were growing older and our physical energy diminishing, we tried ordering food from outside  but we were not satisfied. We felt that our personal touch was lacking. We tried combining a few home cooked items with some items bought from outside. Since the passing away of my wife a few years ago, this is what I do whenever I decide to host High tea or dinner for friends.  I ensure  a couple of home cooked items on the table during such get-togethers. This makes the guests happy. I feel happy when I see them happy. The satisfaction that one gets in serving home cooked meals can never be matched by the impersonal act of hosting guests for meals using Swiggy or any such service.

 The stressed out younger generation with its own priorities may not agree with me.