India
After more than twenty-five years as a communications professional, my journey has evolved from managing brands to exploring the depths of being. Where once success meant designing campaigns, driving engagement, and leading marketing strategies, it now arises from moments of inner clarity, meaningful connection, and shared awakening.My earlier career spanned Marketing and Internal Communications, Brand Strategy, Advertising, Media Planning & Buying, Consumer Research, Event Management, Digital Analytics, and Training. As a Brand Custodian and Communication Leader, I used to deliver value through insight-driven strategies & negotiations, operational excellence, and empathetic leadership. I combined data and intuition—logic and “feel”—to build & support resonant, human-centered brands.Today, I describe myself as a lifelong student of Indic wisdom. My days unfold through painting Divine forms, facilitating workshops on meditation and mantra, analyzing Horoscopes to decode cosmic patterns, conducting reflective book discussions, curating & creating content for the spiritual communities I nurture and sharing my learnings with openness and humility. My purpose now lies in bridging logic with faith, structure with spirit—integrating the analytical discipline of my corporate years with the intuitive depth of spiritual practice. In doing so, I hope to help others, and myself, rest more comfortably in the wholeness of our being.
The Corp Comm division of Sahara India Pariwar, with which i consulted, functioned as a service centre for all in-house Clients’ communication needs, and in case of the involvement of an independent outside Advertising, PR or Event Management Agency, the role became that of facilitating and being a Gatekeeper of Brand values. Spearheaded Marketing and Communication function of Sahara Q Shop at its launch in Aug 2012. The role involved dealing externally with Design & Advertising Agencies and internally with the Product Development teams, Packaging teams, Quality assurance and the Legal department. For the duration I reported to the CEO of Q Shop, even though I’m a Corp Com representative. Was responsible for Pack designing, supervised a month long product shoot and the team delivered almost 200 Artworks to the Packaging department in less than a month’s time from finalisation of Designs. I was also involved in Sampling exercises, Brand communication development, developing collaterals, Research on Consumer Insights, managing Launch Press Conference and Internal Communication. My Media Planning and buying skills were called upon as and when required. I was a key member in the Organising Committees of large events like Bharat Bhawana Diwas(establishing a Guiness Record by Sahara in early May 2013), Sahara’s involvement in Common Wealth Games etc. I managed aspects ranging from Communication issues (including production of music video & collaterals, ad releases, online coverage) to logistics to inventory management of merchandise etc. My engagement kept shifting from actively managing projects to advisory capacity from time to time. One of my projects, revamping and upgrading the internal magazine Apna Parivar, had won an award for best Internal Newsletter.
As the sole PR Agency for 32 group companies of the Tata group, forging strategic alliances and facilitating relationships in the advertising interests of the agency was part of my mandate. Brought best practices from Media planning to evolve out of box solutions to Clients’ PR and other communication requirements, conducted in- house training for media professionals to better understand Client’s/Brand’s communication needs
Without yet being an independent media outfit, the key task at Optimedia was to deliver a media product to key businesses such as Hewlett Packard and Garnier that would compare with the leaders in the industry in terms of effective planning and efficient buying. On other significant Publicis accounts, the function was a component that enabled seamless servicing of Brands’ needs. Contributed to the pitching effort on new businesses, few won and others were in the process of conversion. Started ‘Optiexplorer’, an electronic media newsletter for internal as well as external audiences. Covered in depth analysis, research, happenings, updates, in short a must-read for client servicing and brand managers alike.
VCCL as an integrated communications organization that handled PR for all Tata group companies also handled Advertising for the group companies Tata Tea & Tata Power. Role involved chartering the path and direction in which the Brand must progress in view of the market realities and the repositioning exercise being undertaken by the Tata group per se.