it all started...

this was written on a very bad day. give this a miss? pretty pleeze?

there is a first time for everything; copywriting ain't any different.

it was at school that i first considered taking up copy as a career option. i must have been 13 or 14, not exactly sure. but it must have been during one of those awkward phases in life.

truth was that i had no choice.

scene:

a typical classroom. the day of the chemistry test (used to be called annual exam). the question papers had been handed out and it was just seconds away from 'all systems go'.

moments later, i was holding the question paper, without the faintest idea of what it was all about (only much much later would i realize that i wasn't the only one, most people in that room that day were clueless).

we need to go a bit off the track now:

this was about the time i had started reading books - billy bunter, p. g. wodehouse, hardy boys, hitchcock, nancy drew, famous five and whatever else it was that was generally read those days... everyday the chemistry class provided me with one solid hour of reading time. i certainly wasn't going to waste it on chemistry.

we need to get back to the chemistry test now:

i was lucky the guy sitting right in front of me on that eventful day was a helpful sort of chap. he pushed his table and chair back just so that i wouldn't need to strain my eyes to see his answer sheet. to use the technical term, synchronize my answer sheet with his.

i had found my calling > copy-writing.

that was one of those defining moments in my life (such moments can be made out only years later, generally when you have nothing better to do other than going down memory lane).

the fact that his question paper was quite a bit different from mine that day* is not very relevant to this story and so i will just gloss over that.

so then that's that.

* two different question papers which they alternated so that the person seated next to you would get a different one. tyrants.