The New Year

I’m in advertising – which by default is a volatile business. Especially because the pace is hectic and the demands on your time, always on stretch mode. It’s a playing ground where tempers fray, decibel levels go up and you just might say or do something that you’re going to regret.

Something like that happened last year with a client, who is known to shoot four-letter exclamatories all the time. Harmless really, but can be disturbing when you’re wearing thin on patience. Over the years, his own employees had learnt to ignore his profanities – all of it just “bounced off their walls” as far as they were concerned.

So, on a particular job when he went ballistic without reason, I probably reacted with a little bit of aggression. It was just a teeny-weeny snap back, but the client lost face on his own turf.

And since the event was unprecedented in terms of an agency response, it didn’t go
down too well. The meeting was hurriedly terminated and within a fortnight – you’ve got to believe this – the account was moved to another agency.

It was not a large account, so the arithmetic in terms of a loss didn’t weigh us down; but I had lost a friend. Here was someone who took my advice on anything from dreams to diapers; someone who loaned me some of the best books I have ever read. A client turned friend, who planned meetings around one in the afternoon, so we could stay back for lunch.

It wasn’t just the shifting of the account – the face-off seemed to have long term withdrawal symptoms. If we met at movie theatres, one of us made sure we were not in the same air space. If we walked into the same lane at parking lots, one of us side-stepped to do a long and meaningless detour. (When you bump into someone at a blind corner, even a stranger comes up with a smile.)

As write this, I look at my desktop calendar and notice that it is the 27th of December, 2009. And I wince momentarily when I realize that we didn’t send each other cards for Christmas. We had even deleted each other’s names from our address books.

As reality dawns and wisdom makes a sneak appearance, I wonder if I should add an important task to my list of new year resolutions. I wonder if I should just call my friend and make peace – to rekindle a relationship that did mean something to both of us.

I know that it just takes one person to make that move – and the other will invariably greet you with open arms and a warm smile. Quite simply, it was a question of one step forward, one move, one gesture… one person picking up the phone and saying “Happy New Year…now let’s just put this behind us in 2010.”

And that was the first thing on my list of resolutions.

As the clock struck 12 on New Year’s, I think I was one of the first to call my friend. He told me he was so happy, that he actually had tears in his eyes. We met the next day for lunch and opened a whole new chapter for 2010 and beyond.

Importantly, we decided to keep business out of it.

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Sharath Bhat is a freelance copywriter in from Bangalore, India. Interested in Creativity & Innovation, Content Management & Blogging,  Technology & Computers. Fascinated by the limitless expanse of the internet, where you can share ideas across time zones – in a world without boundaries. He blogs at www.indianink.in.