I want to enjoy my freedom, you have freedom to enjoy yours… Last words from Bhaskar Das

“It cuts through our being” said one friend, “It’s very moving” said another. We are discussing an invite to the prayer meeting for a departed soul and it is a first-person invitation by the departed friend himself. Who could do that? Who else than BD? BD sir, or Bhaskar Sir, Bhaskar Daa or Bhaskar Das. Call him anything but all you will recall, will be a toothsome smile from behind the shiny silver wisps of a man who would refuse to fade away, no matter what.

Just when me, in my thoughts, was blaming the marketing and advertising community in Delhi and in Mumbai, thinking how we all know so much about each other and yet we rarely know the family side of each other, I noticed a WhatsApp message from Bhaskar Das himself! As if he heard me asking myself… do I know anyone in his family who I can call and send my condolences? This was his son sharing a prayer meeting invite.

We often do not even read an invite copy fully. We just perhaps like to see the header, the picture and the venue. And so only a day after, while sharing the message with my friends, I realised there is this message from Bhaskar himself….it reads “ My big boss has approved permanent leave at last, so I’m ecstatic…” And he goes on to say “I want to enjoy my freedom you have freedom to enjoy your freedom…” A message to me and you, to feel our own cage we live in, to recognise the opportunity to come out and enjoy.

I met Bhaskar very late in my career… it was kind of a start of my second career so I was told he is someone very senior. He was a veteran and our 3 minute chat near the coffee machine went straight into a solid memory. Later I found a big circle of people around me who would tell me what he could not deliver. This was a sign of a big person and the expectations people have around him. His big past was worth learning and it didn’t take me time to discover his depths, how he moved around from gatherings to gatherings, office to office, with everyone and anyone bowing before him and he smilingly walking the ramp of life in style.

We spoke at length on phone during Corona days as he locked himself at his Malabar Hills apartment. Discussed pain around his sister’s illness and then later about his own. We fondly remembered the ritual we had designed to give meaning to our casual, unplanned, sudden meetings at marketing events… he would tell me some meaning line from Buddhism and I will recite a Shloka from The Gita…

Lord Krishna says, “whatever was yours, whatever will be yours, is guarded by me”!
अनन्तश्चिन्तन्तयन्तो माम् ते जनाः पर्युपासते । तेषाम् नित्त्याभियुक्तानाम् योगक्षेमम् वहाम्यहम् ॥

(Bhaskar Das passed away on January 15, completing his career of more than 40 years in telling stories, helping brands and making people laugh. https://www.exchange4media.com/media-tv-news/media-veteran-bhaskar-das-no-more-140082.html)

This tribute has been written by Mehraj Dube, Founder and Managing Partner of Your Next Orbit, and a former colleague of Bhaskar Das.