The first turning point in my life came after I pased out of St. Xavier’s School in Jaipur. My father wanted me to study engineering but I didn’t have the marks or the inclination to do it. So, thankfully he let me enroll in the arts stream at St. Stephen’s College in Delhi University. I got great marks and from being a below average science student became the university topper. I got scholarships all the way through college and my post graduation in history.

Since I was doing so well at college, my parents thought I’d join the administrative services. But then came the second turning point when I became a tea taster for the simple reason that my close friend, Arun Dhall, was one and we decided to work together.

Then in 1982 I met some college friends who were in advertising — which excited me immensely but wasn’t on my radar. I made up my mind to get into advertising and decided that since I was plunging in later than my contemporaries, I’d start at the best place. So, I left Calcutta and headed to what was then Bombay. Till then I wasn’t clear about what department I wanted to join, so I took the job of a senior accounts executive at Ogilvy & Mather (&M).

About five years later, my boss Suresh Mullick, who was &M’s creative director at that time, saw that my colleagues in the creative department came to me for help to write copies. So, I was transferred to the creative department in 1987. This was another important turning point.

Then around 1993-94 they asked me to head the creative department, then the office and some years later I became the national creative director of &M. In 2003 I was made the chairman of the company.

I take each day as it comes and accept and cherish all these milestones. I have enjoyed every bit of my work so much so that my professional turning points have been the highlights in my personal life too.

(As told to Saimi Sattar)