The Hindu Business Line : Police and Mumbai

`Police Aaya, Bhago' — This advertisement created by Enterprise Nexus sums up the sombre mood in Mumbai following the rape of a collegian by a policeman.

The exclamation, heard a hundred times in Hindi movies, would normally be uttered by thieves, smugglers and the like. The biting sarcasm in the advertisement was not lost on the citizens of Mumbai who would emphatically agree that this is what innocent tax-paying citizens would exclaim about the policemen, given the current mood of the populace.

This is a far cry from the days when the police department partnered the advertising industry and came out with communication that sought to bridge the gap between the department and the citizens.

The media in Mumbai has been right at the forefront of reflecting the angst that Mumbaikars are suffering. And, have shown they can be responsible and discrete as well.

Times party

Bhaskar Das, the new response head honcho at The Times of India threw a party at the Rooftop of the Hilton Towers. Victoria might not have been present physically, but all is known.

The advertising industry was very well represented. Almost all the agency heads who matter, and a few who don't, were there. Good old Mike Khanna, Chairman Emeritus, JWT, was busy introducing Jagdip Bakshi, the new head of Contract to the industry regulars. Bakshi, who has been a Delhiwallah, is relatively unknown in the Mumbai cocktail circuit. Our little bird reports that the usual celebrities such as Shobha De were present, but one would have expected many more advertisers there. Maybe this party was only for the agency types.

Our little bird also noticed several young white Caucasian women doing rounds of the guests armed with vodka and tequila shots. That, and the magicians who went around entertaining the guests (maybe some people did not have too much to talk about) evidently brought back memories of the Pradeep Guha days. Yet, Das is a solid professional himself and any comparison with Guha should start in Bengal and end with the purple and gold hair dye they both prefer.

The consensus was that Das and his charming singing star wife Somshukla made for very good hosts. Well, looks like the good times will continue rolling at the Times.

Changes

With Smita Deshmukh, the queen bee at Bombay Times (BT) taking off to sip the nectar at DN&A, Pradeep Guha's coup seems to be complete. Deshmukh was the serious face of BT. If there were any political or civic or city-related issues that found mention in BT, one could thank Deshmukh for them.

Not that she didn't approve of the glamour quotient that Guha kept emphasising. In fact, she could turn up looking glamorous herself at times. Well, one is told that Deshmukh could not quite reconcile to the medianet regime at BT.

AdClub

It seems the nominations for the President and Managing Committee of the AdClub Bombay are being accepted. That would usher in a new team to guide the fortunes of this huge institution. We look forward to knowing who will be the next President. If the Vice-President takes over, then finally, the AdClub Bombay will have a woman on top. One hopes Kalpana Rao, the current Vice-President, will take over the reins of the Club. We will not speculate on who could be the Vice-President, but this little bird mentioned the name of Bhaskar Das. We could be wrong, but a little bit of innocent crystal ball gazing didn't hurt anyone.

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