One summer holiday, my cousin was reading a book in which the hero was a copywriter. As the plot unfolded, boy met girl, and girl asked boy what sort of work he did. He wrote advertising copy, he said. When probed further he exposed her to a choice sample of his work. It went something like this:

Uncle George and Aunty Mabel
Fainted at the breakfast table
Let this be an awful warning
To those who do it in the morning
But Ovaltine has put them right
Now they do it morning and night
Uncle George is hoping soon
To do it in the afternoon
Hark, the herald angles sing
Ovaltine is a damn good thing

I have forgotten the name of the book and the author. But this piece of copy for Ovaltine, remains unforgettable.

Then there was YehNazdeekiyan, starring my two all-time favourite heroines, Parveen Babi and Shabana Azmi. The hero of his movie was, once again, a copywriter. He was married to Shabana. And he had an affair with Parveen, who was, but naturally, a model. Anyway, in the time left to him after attending to these two beautiful ladies, our hero wrote advertising copy. I remember him being particularly thrilled with a line he came up with for ``The Deaf and Dumb Association of India.'' It was, ``The loudest cry you did not hear.'' (Not bad, huh?) He ruefully remembers the night Shabana inspired him to write this line after he has dumped her for Parveen. For, whatever else the latter inspired him to do, it certainly wasn't writing copy. I don't remember who played the copywriter in Yeh Nazdeekiyan. Probably because I always pictured myself in the role.

Was it just coincidence that the protagonists of so many books and films that came my way were into advertising? When I was in college a friend lent me Gore Vidal's MyraBreckinridge. The life of Myra -- who once was Myron -- was in a sense about love in the time of advertising. Myra was darned proud of her insights into the significance of ads.

``I was sufficiently avante garde in 1959 to recognise the fact that it was no longer the movies but the television commercial that engaged the passionate attention of the world's best artists... the minds of our children have been filled with dreams that will stay with them forever, the way those maddening jingles do (as I write I have begun softly to whistle ``Rinso White,'' a theme far more meaningful culturally than all Stravinsky or even John Cage)... the relationship between consumer and advertiser is the last demonstration of necessary love in the West and its principal form of expression is the television commercial... Farewell the classic film, hail the television commercial!''

Wow! This totally repositioned advertising for me. Now it was no longer just a fun, glamorous job with interesting perks - it was highly legitprofession, an object of intellectual pursuit, perhaps even the subject that defined the very age we live in.

Though I didn't consciously realise it at the time, I was now totally primed to follow a pre-ordained career path. It was as if I was standing on a cliff overhanging the field of advertising. And all it would take was a gentle push to send me hurtling headlong into it. And hurtle I did (though I remember who gave me the gentle push). So here I am, using words to sell things. Not feeling particularly glamorous. But trying nevertheless to do it with as much wit and charm as I can muster. Drawing upon another source of inspiration that I cannot but mention: Ogden Nash, with his pithy and picturesque style:

The cow is the bovine ilk
One end moo, the other milk

Whether he was writing on biology or outdoor advertising, Ogden never failed to be eloquent.

I think that I shall never see
A billboard lovely as a tree;
Indeed, unless the billboards fall,
I'll never see a tree atall

When I burn the midnight oil having jump-started my brain cells with a hot mug of Ovaltine, I try to follow his manner of communicating simply, wittily and memorably.

The writer is associate creative director, Ogilvy & Mather Advertising. His views, however, are not necessarily shared by his employers