‘Maa-baap kahin nahin jaate’: Azazul Haq remembers Piyush Pandey

New Delhi: Maa-baap kahin nahin jaate. Bas aisa lagta hai ki woh chale gaye. Kabhi woh aapke hothon par muskurate hain. Kabhi woh aapke likhne ke andaaz mein jhalak jaate hain. Kabhi woh aapke thahakon mein nazar aate hain.

Piyush hasn’t passed away; he has passed himself on to many of us.

I was always the Eklavya. I told him that many times. Whether I was working with him or not, I was always learning from him.

What Piyush taught everyone goes beyond advertising. It is far bigger than advertising. He taught us how to have a big heart. How to inspire. How to praise. How to hug. How to laugh. How to love. How to be humble. How to make even a trainee feel welcome. How to make everyone feel included. How to make everyone feel like family. And that is what he created – a family called Ogilvy. 

So no matter where you go, no matter what you become, you are always part of that family. Piyush hasn’t gone anywhere. He is wherever we are – his family.

I was lucky to spend six to seven years with my Dronacharya, my guru, the guru of the entire Indian advertising industry. I will always be his Eklavya – trying to learn from him, trying to recreate what he created, however impossible that task is. To create that family. To build that institution. I will always try to create Piyush. I will always try to think Piyush. I will always try to be Piyush. So he will live inside me, always – like so many others in advertising.

Kyonki maa-baap kahin nahin jaate.