a brand story

My friend and colleague Shahan wrote a brand story for a brand that I felt was so amazing that this, and only this, is fitting enough to break our one month silence with. Day after tomorrow the entire office is off to Shillong. We'll post pictures from the hills or whatever they have there if there's any internet. Till then, toodle oo!!!!!!!!!!

The old man, having twenty minutes in hand before his second highlight of the day, his ‘special cup of tea’, was sitting in a park bench. The first highlight being his ‘special morning cup of tea’. He got up from his seat and stooped with effort to pick something up from the ground. It was a windy October day and the playground was filled with children and laughter.

The boy who had just thrown his broken watch away looked on intently as the old man picked it up and sat down. He was looking at its face with mild amusement. The boy got up from the concrete bench, left his friends and walked over to his discarded watch and its apparent new owner. He took a spot, stuck his hands inside his pockets and waited. The old man was still occupied with it; he was rubbing its scratched glassy face and from time to time, turning the tiny knob that made the dials spin. The boy forced a cough and when the man didn’t acknowledge it, decided that he too must be quite deaf like his grandfather. He waited. And then the man spoke.

“Next time start with a hello instead of a grunt. Sounds friendlier.”

The boy didn’t know what to do and would have perhaps run off if the man hadn’t looked up and smiled. That made him stay; an honest smile has that effect. The boy took out one hand from his pocket, shielded his eyes from the dying sun and announced the watch was his. The old man winked at him and thrust out his hand with the watch.

“Lucky you”, the old man said.

The boy didn’t take it. “No, not lucky. I threw it away because the dials don’t turn anymore. It’s old and boring”

“Me or the watch?”

The boy laughed genuinely and said he meant the watch.

“Is that why you threw it away”, the man asked.

“Yes. My mother’s going to give me one with digits on them and not dials”

“Well that must…”

The boy didn’t let him finish.

“And lights too, you know. It’s got a bright green light so you know what time it is even in the dark. And there’s three buttons that beep when you press them. One’s for the date and, and…”

The old man never knew what the other buttons did. He gestured to the boy to take a seat beside him by patting the bench. He smiled again as the boy sat down and folded his arms across his chest, swinging his legs.

“That fat boy from the 4^th floor has one just like it. I saw it.”

“Hmm. Well, can I keep this then?” the old man asked.

“Sure mister. Are you going to get it fixed?”

“No. I’ll just keep it as it is. And thank you.”

If the boy had been old enough to understand sarcasm he’d understand the old man wasn’t being so. He looked astonished which made the man smile again.

“Really? But what are you going to do with it?”

“Remember you.”

The boy didn’t look too convinced. The man continued.

“Besides, it’s not completely useless. I bet it works sometimes.”

“No it doesn’t! It’s been stuck at 11.35 since Monday and my father changed the batteries too. Didn’t help.”

The old man pondered over this for a moment and said, “It still says 11.35 even when it’s say, 5 o’clock?”

“Yes”

“And at 12?”

“Still 11.35. Always 11.35!”

“Hmm, well then. How about when it’s 11.35?”

The boy looked puzzled. He stuck out his lower lip and slapped his knees with his palms.

“When it’s really 11.35 your broken watch says the right time! You see, twice everyday this watch becomes just as right as any other. It can’t help being old and boring but that’s another thing.” The old man held the watch close to his face and looked at it brightly. Sunlight bounced off its glass surface and danced merrily on his face. “Sometimes, even things that seem useless at first have their reasons for being. Sometimes ordinary things, like us, only need favors from circumstance. It’s such a pity that I didn’t know this when I was your age. But now, I’m going to keep it and it’s going to give me the right time two times everyday! And the most fascinating thing is I won’t ever have to worry about batteries! Lucky me!”

It worked. At 11, the boy was on the threshold of life’s first revelation. He looked longingly at his old birthday present but didn’t have the heart to ask for it back. The old man admired it so.

“Well it’s almost time for my special cup of tea, young friend. I’ll just be a minute” said the old man suddenly. And with that he got up, unfolded his sleeves and walked away. The boy hardly heard; he just sat there, not waiting, simply sitting on a park bench on a windy October day.

And of course the old man never returned and of course he ‘forgot’ his remarkable new broken watch and of course when the boy’s mother came to fetch him, he pocketed it and took it home.