Behind the mighty moustache, Piyush Pandey was a child at heart

Piyush Pandey was an irony. While many allow the grind of life to wear away their curiosity and joy, he seemed to grow more alive with age, seeing the world with a child’s wonder and an adult’s purpose as he went from playing state-level cricket for Rajasthan to becoming Indian advertising’s most celebrated storyteller.

That’s what yours truly gleaned at a Sunday gathering celebrating his life. Some of Indian advertising’s biggest names were there, along with Ogilvy’s longstanding clients, to remember him and what he meant to them. Stories flowed like the bubbly does on special occasions.

It turns out that Piyush loved calling people between six and seven in the morning, sometimes for work, sometimes to tell a joke. You had to laugh; when you did was up to you.

McCann Worldgroup CEO and CCO Prasoon Joshi recalled how one such early morning joke didn’t quite land. Moments later, Piyush called Joshi’s wife and asked her to give him a cup of tea so that he could call again and hear him laugh properly this time.

He once called Asian Paints MD Amit Syngle early in the morning just to talk about the view from his Goa home. Nobody was spared. “Nobody, and I mean nobody, calls me at 6.30 in the morning, Piyush, except you. Even my mum controls herself,” remembered Ogilvy chief creative officer Kainaz Karmakar.

It is this kind of mirth that shaped the man and it is seen in his work.

Take that Pidilite ad where a truck passes through a desert-like region with people stuck all over it. Focus on the music every time the truck hits a bump. It makes you chuckle. How does a moustached grown man sign off on something so subtle yet so joyful? Because he still laughed like a child every day, finding humour in the simplest of things.

He wasn’t one to brood like a pipe-smoking detective. Though, to be fair, Piyush did love his pan masala.

Consider another Pidilite classic, the Fevikwik fisherman ad. The Ogilvy team had been brainstorming from morning till noon with no luck. In walked Piyush and asked them to join him for a drink. They refused, saying they had to crack an idea. “Oh come on,” he said, “picture a guy applying Fevikwik to a stick, dipping it in water, and the fish get stuck. Now come on, let’s go have a beer.” That was it.

Childlike imagination, quick wit and a love for the good life. What more can one ask from an adman?

Ogilvy CCO Harshad Rajadhyaksha recalled a Cannes Lions masterclass where Piyush asked a hall full of creative people to breathe in and out, like a yoga teacher. Imagine him, floral shirt, moustache, the works, leading a breathing exercise. But the point he made stayed. What you inhale shouldn’t just be advertising. Get out, live, and explore the world. Creativity, he said, comes from life itself.

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Tale after tale revealed Piyush’s zest for life and people. Everyone spoke from the heart because he belonged to them. In truth, he belonged to everybody.

Former Ogilvy global CEO and now WPP COO Devika Bulchandani said it best. “I thought I was the most special one to Piyush. Watching and reading all this outpouring over the last ten days, I have to say I’m a little upset because I realised I’m not the only one special to him.”

There was laughter, there were tears, and for once, nobody was looking at their phones. Everyone had a Piyush story.

Maybe it was the childlike wonder that spoke to us from behind that moustache and grin. Maybe we had all lost touch with the one inside us, and Piyush, in his own way, reminded us of it.

It was clear he had lived, not drifted. The outpouring, the love, the respect, the memories, they all said the same thing. Most of us walk through life; he lived it. The child in him thrived, and the man, proud. Is there a better way to live?