In the early 1980’s I visited India well over a dozen times in an attempt to reintroduce Pepsi Cola into what we believed then to be one of the most dynamic, fast growing markets of the future. I hadn’t been back until a few months ago when Saatchi & Saatchi introduced the new CEO Matt Seddon to India. I held a couple of workshops for clients in Mumbai and Delhi. The country is a Lovemark for many as it is teeming with the three secrets: Mystery, Sensuality and Intimacy.
Yesterday I saw one of the great English movies – The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel – starring Judi Dench and one of my favorite character actors, Bill Nighy.
This movie really captured the hope, the ambiguity, and the specialness of India. The storytelling is superb, the direction is marvelous, and the capturing of the truth incredible. It’s just so beautiful, so true to so many things both English and Indian, you should see it. It lifts your heart, makes you laugh and also makes you welcome advancing years a little more optimistically.
A good old fashioned, upbeat story of optimism in a far distant exotic land.
