New Delhi, Oct. 24 -- In a casual banter at an industry event in 2008, this writer asked a bunch of young executives from India's advertising industry if they felt overwhelmed in the presence of creative legends from all over the world at an international event they had just returned from. One of them pointed at Piyush Pandey and said: "Mere paas baap hai (referring to Pandey as the 'father of Indian advertising'). Why should I be afraid?"

A reference to the iconic dialogue-"Mere paas ma hai"-from the Hindi film Deewar, this elicited a laughter in the group. Pandey, who was part of the conversation, wasn't impressed. "Ye to udhaar ka hai.kuch original hona chahiye (this is borrowed; it's got to be something original)," he said.

Pandey, ...