In remembrance of my friend...

One day in a company where I was working, the boss called the team for a meeting and said there was a pitch competition that had to be delivered on Monday morning. Usually, it took 2-3 weeks to work on a major project, at that time it was Thursday morning and we only had two working days. It meant that we would have to work over the weekend too.

Someone who was among the people gathered around the table, immediately said: "I can't work on this as I have a wedding to attend during the weekend." Another said: "It's my child's birthday, we are having guests at home." Like that every person had something already planned. I was there watching all our men fall on the battlefield even before any shot had been fired. I knew that if a meeting had been called, the intention was to participate. So, when my turn came to speak, I said that I will work on it and see how far I can take it. The guy sitting next to me said, "I will work with Nanda on this."

This guy was an Art Director, he is the person with whom I have probably handled the most challenging projects in my whole career and we both literally grew up as professionals together. There was always a feeling of deep understanding, respect and admiration between us.

That day, after the meeting, we were just the two of us. We sat and planned everything, I asked the guy who was an Art Director to focus on the logo and nothing else for the next two days. I took it upon myself to write the strategy document. On Friday evening, we sat and sorted these out. One guy from the studio came to see me and told me, "I know you are going to spend your whole weekend on this project. We discussed it among ourselves and all the guys in the studio have decided to come and help you. You can count on us."

I was moved by this show of solidarity, they were literally throwing away their weekend and whatever plans they had with their family to be with us. But the time was not for sentimentality, I just told them: "Let's all go home for today and come early tomorrow and we will plan everything." I went home feeling more confident having the whole team working with me.

That Saturday morning we bought gateau piment and prepared tea and sat and planned the next two days. We worked day and night and completed the different items of the campaign including TV scripts, storyboards, press ads, billboards, brochures and pamphlets. On Sunday, the messenger driver of the company came and brought briani for the team which he got from a wedding of one of his close relatives. He told me: " Mo koné zot pé donn tou seki dan zot ventt. Moi oussi, mo pé ferr seki mo kapav pou zot."

On Sunday, we worked through the night and early morning, some of the guys went to buy bread and some others prepared tea and we ate dipain diberr fromage and drank tea. After that, we completed the printing and made sure everything was ready.

When it was over, we were dead tired. Some of the guys could hardly stand on their feet. We all realized that we had done something momentous.

The boss came and checked all the work and was so happy, he was beaming. He told me, "The level of creativity is fantastic and for the first time I hardly had anything to do on such a big project, I can see the effort you all put into this. I now have to win it so as not to let you all down."

There were several agencies pitching for this project including an international firm. Then, just like now, people thought that because it's an international company, it has to be better than us. We showed that it need not be true because we won the pitch competition fair and square. It was for the launch of the first cybercity.

For a long time afterwards, I would travel by and see the slogan 'Let's make IT together' on one of the buildings and it would make me feel so many emotions. I remembered everything we went through and I remembered the Art Director who worked on this project with me. He was a true friend who stood by me and chose not to let me down when the going got tough. Today is twelve years since he passed away. I just wanted to recount this story so people keep hearing of our days of great heroism, my friend, so that what you did in this life continues to echo in eternity...