Let’s make laughter a tradition: Prasoon Joshi remembers Piyush Pandey

“It is tough for me to talk about Piyush Pandey in the past,” said Prasoon Joshi, in a heartfelt tribute that captured the enduring spirit of the advertising legend. ““It’s like a river — it is there, not, was there. In the same way, Piyush Pandey is there, not, was there.” Joshi was speaking on Sunday, November 2, as Ogilvy came together to honour Piyush Pandey.

For Joshi, Piyush Pandey was a constant both in personal life and in the profession they shared. “I do not know the advertising world without Piyush Pandey,” he said, reflecting on how unimaginable it feels to speak of him in the past tense.

Recalling the moment he heard the news while overseas, Joshi shared that his first instinct was guided by Piyush’s own spirit when people were reaching out to him for his thoughts. “If Piyush was here, he would have said, why are you thinking, write,” Joshi told his wife Aparna. “Because Piyush was very instinctive, and he believed that if you have it, it will come out.”

Their partnership, Joshi said, thrived on their differences, his own poetic leaning balanced by Piyush’s clarity and directness. He remembered a moment when Piyush told him, “You wrote that song rehna tu hai jaisa tu, which means stay the way you are, so stay that way. There is no need to change in life.”

Joshi described Piyush’s unmatched consistency, drawn from an “authentic source of life.” “He would always look inside for an idea and create it. He never sent anyone back with a suggestion but with an idea.”

Remembering Piyush’s warmth, Joshi spoke of his ability to make everyone feel like family, and of their shared laughter, “For me, laughter wasn’t an option with Piyush, it was inevitable.”

He concluded his tribute with a self-authored poem dedicated to his friend, beginning with the words, “Let’s make laughter a tradition.”