Meeting Shormistha, the Storyteller, creative strategist, connection maker, team builder and entrepreneur in her Flying Cursor office at Kalina- a working space that fits her bill, was an experience in itself. I traced her from Instagram after the release of her book, Pudding- The Memory Keepers of Bandra. What intrigued me was the title; my Bandra instincts kicked in, asking for more. She was not only receptive but also welcoming and proved herself to be a besotted student of human nature, a passionate traveller, boutique hotel hunter, urbanist, and heritage/history evangelist. Of course, working on bringing it all together in a product that aids discovery and exploration led to the book. She is also the co- founder of a digital agency, runs a popular blog, and is known as Agent Greenglass.
A child of a cosmopolitan couple that travelled all over the country,, a Bengali father and a Punjabi mother, Shormistha was never really the person who thought of where she came from and what she wore. An Air Force child, she remembers the travel, and that’s what she tries to replicate even now. She’s more of an urbanist, having moved from Calcutta and Delhi 23 years ago. Always on the move, she agrees that she has had a pretty stressful life, not unlike the rest of the corporate structure. She also worked independently on special projects, travelling all over India.
But daring to step out at the right time, knowing full well that advertising does not really leave one’s blood, she did the next best thing and started her own little agency, Rickshaw Communication & Design (2009-2011). Strangely, at that time, they found themselves in the middle of everything, like the internet, social media, and so many cultural shifts that it was actually exciting. She and her partner made sure that it was a communication agency, and she explained why- ‘because I wanted to practise all the things I had learnt in my time across the largest agencies in the country. Rickshaw was everything they were, and then more. It was fierce and nimble. Practical and out of the box.‘
She helped build Rickshaw into a successful boutique agency with long-term engagements with clients such as the Phoenix Group of malls, Blue Foods, Faces Cosmetics, Mahindra Adventure, and Future Brands. It was an exciting time being on her own. But like they say, all good things must end. And somewhere along the line, unshackled by the boxes of traditional agencies, her role became that of someone who kept searching for brand solutions across all consumer journeys.
How was the change from the corporate sector to her own little bubble?
Having left mainline advertising (as a Creative Director at Saatchi & Saatchi) quite a few years ago, she now applies all her genius to her online communication. And with all of the above, Shormistha discovered her love for the digital and the opportunities it provided. She wanted to take the very same human insights and brand truths to create transformational digital ideas that could then influence mainline activation and branding. She had decided to replace the old order with something new. She went on to explain– ‘I believe that at the heart of all communication lie human insights. Our dreams, our fears, our ambition, our relationships, in fact, our human truths…they define how we respond to brands and their communication.’
Over lunch, at the working space, I found her to be a breast cancer survivor (45), and at 53 now, struck me as somebody who wanted to absolutely grab life and give the best to it, of course, with whatever she has left. That explained why her plate was filled to the brim, but she also believed in the balance of a slow life. Her feelings on growing older made so much sense, as today older and wiser, she said- ‘After cancer, and the treatment that followed, it was like a watershed moment- I’ve stopped feeling bad about age catching on, more about the people I love and less about what does not matter. The brush with mortality really turned me around’. Her cancer days gave her time to catch up with life, since she feels it came on with the innumerable stresses, a burnout of sorts. She learnt to embroider, discovered painting, pottery, rifle shooting and walked endlessly. Perhaps all that walking to discover led her to discover Bandra, and her book was born. Married for thirty years and with no offspring, she has all the time to live and laugh.
Today, Flying Cursor, an award-winning, full-service digital communication agency, is 14 years old. Her job with it is to lead and inspire work that combines strategy, insights, design, technology and media to create persuasive brand solutions across digital mediums. She leads a team of 35 cross-functional specialists, who excel in telling compelling stories in all forms. In the last 3 years, they have partnered on long-term relationships and projects with various brands, including National Geographic Channel, Fox Life, Bisleri, The Leela, and Max Life Insurance. Godrei. Piramal, to name a few. Their strength lies in their belief that digital media and creative solutions go hand in hand.
A reader, a writer, a radical, who refused to publish through the usual channels, Shormistha says there will be a Pudding 2, and even 3? It’s the age of sequels.
