Bangalore: Senior members of the Media , Marketing and Advertising fraternity celebrated the life of Arvind Kumar, Executive Director of The Ad Club Bangalore who passed away due to a cardiac arrest on the 25th of last month.
The online prayer meeting organised by The Ad Club Bangalore had family, friends and many media veterans who shared a long friendship with Arvind, sharing some fond memories from their association with him.
Arvind Kumar’s life was celebrated through a short video followed by many industry voices sharing how they first met him and how his childlike enthusiasm, his cool temperament and most importantly his faith in and support of the advertising industry across the country made him dear to so many.
Recounting their association with him were Raj Nayak of House of Cheer, Bunty Peerbhoy, Chairman Maa Communications, Prashanth Kumar, CEO, GroupM South Asia, PR Satheesh, COO, MMTV, Harish Bijoor of Harish Bijoor Associates, CVL Srinivas, Country Manager, WPP India, Sridhar Ramanujam of Brand Comm, Mathew of Disha Communications, Pradeep Dwivedi, Partho Roy, Ganapathy of Ad Gully and Ashwin of DNA Networks.
Long time associates of Arvind and senior members of The Ad Club Bangalore – Malavika Harita of Brand Circle and RT Kumar of Oysters Advertising shared their thoughts.
Bipin Pandit of The Ad Club, Mumbai, Dr. T. Vinay Kumar of the Pepper Trust, Cochin and Anbuchezhian K of the Ad Club Madras also celebrated their collaboration with the Ad Club Bangalore through the efforts of Arvind Kumar.
The prayer meet was attended by Mrs Kala Arvind Kumar and Divya and Dhanya Arvind – his daughters. Dhanya read out an emotionally penned poem on her father.
Managing Committee Members – Sanchayeeta Verma formerly with Group M, Kishan Kumar of Wavemaker and Laeeq Ali of Origami Creative and currently the President of the Ad Club Bangalore shared how the Managing Committee is already missing Arvind’s presence in putting together the Ad Club Bangalore’s biggest event of the year – The Big Bang Awards which is going to be organised online in early December 2020.
The solemn voices at the meeting applauded the institution of the Arvind Kumar Memorial Award for the most enterprising individual from the advertising fraternity. The first trophy shall be given away at the Big Bang Awards later this year.
Laeeq Ali, President, Advertising Club Bangalore, said “It was wonderful to hear the beautiful tributes from the leading luminaries of the industry. The management committee is very touched by the kind words of everyone.
Arvind Kumar is someone who has donned many hats and touched many hearts. But the most important aspect, which comes into my mind, is his ever-smiling face and selfless nature. He was a true example of a Go-Giver. He means a lot to us as well as the industry at large and we wanted to make sure his name is etched in memory forever in the form of the Arvind Kumar Memorial award for the most enterprising ad person of the year.
Rest in Peace Arvind. Keep Smiling. You will be missed, a lot.”
