10th February 2010. A usual day in itself, I thought, but for the fact that 3 friends of mine on Facebook had their birthdays. I sent them the customary birthday wishes and was getting about my work.
But hey! There was something special about the day professionally. Ram was making a presentation to the Gen Y in the Global Youth Marketing Forum at Taj Land’s End in the morning. Ram had worked on the presentation, with help from Sandeep and the thought was about presenting the story of 3 screens (Internet, Mobile and TV through DTH) to the youth. As expected, due to the shifted paradigm in content (other speakers kept talking about internet and internet only) and due to the delivery, which Ram is famous for, the presentation was a super duper success. To the extent, Ram was actually told by the co-ordinator that his presentation was the most captivating. Wow!
While this was happening, there was another whammy of a mail that came from Sandeep. Networkplay was also getting its single largest RO so far. Due to the efforts of Sandeep, Harmeet, Mukesh and Pallavi, we managed to crack a new client. So the atmosphere in the office was that of jubilation.
And the best was yet to come. We were also headed to Land’s End again in the evening because Ram had been nominated to receive the “Star Youth Achiever Award” by the Global Youth Marketing Forum, recognized by the CMO Council and the news was that he had also won the award.
We all headed to Land’s End getting all goose bumpy because this was the first nomination that Ram had gotten as an entrepreneur and because he had won. The awards, started a little late as was expected, which was very well for us because we were also stuck in traffic.
Finally the awards started and as the awards were called out one by one, our heart beats quickened rapidly. We were also handed a few whistles and hooters, which we religiously blew for other winners as well but when Ram’s name was called out, we went berserk whistling and hooting. I blew my Sunil chhaap rowdy whistle, two fingers in my mouth too, which I had reserved only for Ram’s award. 
Click, click, click, went the photographers and it gave me a feeling of joy because they were click-happy for Ram. Congratulatory emails went out informing the teams in Delhi and Bangalore and return emails flowed back. The feeling was totally overwhelming.
After a quick round of drinks, (we had to drink, to toast Ram’s win) and dinner, we all left feeling happy.
PS: We were wondering if we would make it back in one piece since Isha decided to get behind the wheel and drive us back. A lot of heart lurching jerky brake applications and sharp turns later, we did make it in one piece and that is why I am writing this. 
By Sunil @ 10:22 pm