Don't drop the pretence, gentlemen.

Someone recently told me he was impressed with the way advertising people treat office helps, canteen boys, the agency man fridays (no, not servicing). I told him meet any happy people, and that's the first thing you'll notice about them.

A headturner, wasn't it.

No, don't expect an agency guy to accept it. It's a weird kind of pleasure most of us get in here. Cribbing about it. Spending evenings and nights and lots of cash at the bar criticising the way it functions. The fact that it's fun for a few, underemployment/payment for most. Sometimes, how it's almost comparable to prostitution.

That's perhaps the only bit of humility you'll find in an agency guy. His profession or the agency is the last thing he'd flaunt (writing first for a copy guy, aesthetics first for an Art Director, and celeb contacts for Account Management. Fat chance you'd ever meet a Planner randomly; it's usually difficult grabbing hold of 'un on purpose).

But ask me if every morning on my way to work, I could imagine heading to any other place but an agency, and you'll have me ducking for cover.

And that's how beautiful this place is. Every morning, no matter how stressful the day ahead maybe, no matter how pathetic the last night's layouts were, you can still drag yourself out of the quilt and head to work. Often in pyajamas and chappals, but that's not the point here.

Not to say I'm the most mature soul around these days, but as an absolute juvenile, drunk out of his wits, I once told my boss advertising was the best thing to have happened to me. He ensured the pretence wasn't dropped and burst into laughter. I smiled. Something I'd been doing every day at work before that conversation, something I've been doing every day at work after that exchange.