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| Sunday, 14 December 2003 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Appreciation: Those were the days... Those were the days, my friends..." Those were the rose-red days. Scarlet and gold days. The days when we were young and GRANTS was younger. For us it was the morning of the world! We were a small group but oh - so- exclusive and everyone of us bursting with an exuberance of talent! Ananda Tissa de Alwis, Ranjith Jayasuriya, Joan Collette, Chris Greet, Sharm de Alwis, Ronnie Nathanielsz, Harrischandra, Anon Wijesuriya, Gavin Aserappa, Carol Drieberg, Daphne Berenger, Ruth Amerasekera, Maureen Balthazaar, and so many others - And above all at the head of it, the GREATEST of all among us, our dear friend, our Guru, our Boss, Reggie Candappa; the IMMORTAL. How could that small building, which was Grant Advertising then, contain so much verve, so much enthusiasm, so much creative energy, so many ideas? Every single one of us who learned our Advertising under the firm and sure, the guiding hand of Reggie Candappa went on from GRANTS to shine in our own respective or further careers. To make a mark, he had spurred us on, taught us how to use, to develop the small talents which were all we possessed when we came to work with him, and mightily together make GRANT ADVERTISING as it was then known, one of the leading Ad-Agencies in this country. And what FUN we had working together, under Reggie's inspired direction - as a Team. Our brain-storming sessions, where unlimited cups of coffee were served and consumed, were not only remarkable for the creative advertising soft and hard sell they produced, the visuals and the copy that came out of them, but for the deviations and interpolations that make them unforgettable to me even to this day. Everyone had a joke up his or her sleeve to crack, a tale to tell, a case of one-upmanship (always the Client at receiving end, of course!) to relate and raise everyone's spirits (Clients were the Necessary Evil everytime). What FUN it was but how we worked! Time was not our master - at GRANTS during those golden days. We never counted the hours. They were so absorbing, so interesting, so much packed with creativity. At GRANTS because of Reggie's extraordinary artistic talents the Visuals took the lead but Deputy Manager, Ananda Tissa was a Master Copy Writer, and there were others too who could get the right words at the right time, for the product or service that the Client considered so precious. "Can't lightning blast them!" Ananda would exclaim in a torrent of rage at some Client's fitfulness. Reggie would look round fearfully in case Client's shadow or spirit or whatever was around or the walls had ears. "Man," he would say in that gentle voice of his, "Client is what makes our world go round!" Oh, we soon came to learn about that. "Even the great Livy (Poet of Ancient Rome.) or the greatest Shakespeare needed patrons, remember?" Reggie would remind us, "Now we need Clients. We have to keep them happy," he would insist. But, an aside from Ananda, "Yes even if it means going to the bathroom for them!" Reggie would laugh as heartily as the rest - but he possessed that rare talent also to make friends of GRANT Clients, and it stood the Agency in good stead. Another talent (he had so many) was to attract the best in Radio, Journalism, later TV. There is hardly a single Media-great in the country who has not at some time or the other worked at/for GRANTS. They flocked to GRANTS where one received so much satisfaction from one's job. When I took back on those wonderful days now gone forever, I am reminded of a green and shining oasis in an arid desert. An oasis where a thousand flowers bloomed. It was an arid era, the early to end of the 1960s, the days when private enterprise was being rapidly styled and a fever of "Nationalization" gripped the then Government. Our salaries were so small, compared with what Ad-people are paid - today - but money was not everything in those days. Life was simpler by far and we, none of us, felt no need to show off. The world of Advertising, smaller then but large enough, knew our mettle and Clients flocked to GRANTS because of the unchallenged and unchallengable superiority of Reggie Candappa and his Team. And yet what do I remember most of my dear friend and guru, Reggie? That he was kindness incarnate, gentle, unassuming, of an even temper, ready to help one and all, just and fair, he did not have a mean bone in his body. More-over he taught us EVERYTHING he knew. He was not like some "Masters" who keep back the core and only give away the rind. There is none to match him. There is no-one like him. No one, I repeat, no-one is fit to inherit or wear his mantle nor will there ever be. There was only the ONE Reggie Candappa and I am proud and thankful I had the honour and good fortune to associate with him in those rose-red days gone by. Gone, too many gone, "the old, familiar faces..." So much so that I feel I should have said in that long gone time, with the poet. "O time, suspend your flight, and you, happy hours, stay your feet! Let us savour the swift delights of our life's loveliest day!" (Alphonse De Lamartine, 1790 - 1869). Maureen Seneviratne |
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