MAM
Guest column: Titus Upputuru on the book that’s guided his life
GURUGRAM: The best book I ever read is the book I read daily. I have been reading it since I was a child, but it is so unputdownable that I can’t help but read it every single day. I carry it everywhere, in the flights, in the cabs, I sleep with it, even. It’s a love letter actually. And the love shines through to anyone who believes in the author.
The name of the book is Holy Bible, the largest selling book in the world till date.
It has 66 chapters and is largely about the lives of some people since the beginning of time and how God dealt with those people. It also records the birth of Jesus Christ, his cruel death, and his resurrection from death. The book ends with the promise of the second coming of Jesus Christ and a glorious life to the readers who believe in him.
Now the interesting thing is this – it says in the Bible that all of the chapters are written by men, but that God actually moved them to write them. And this is what makes it so incredible because as you read it, you get verses that directly speak to you.
Like for instance, I had to go to Afghanistan for a film shoot. Now my dad and the rest of the family were really worried. But as I read the Bible in the morning, a verse read ‘Go in peace’. I believed it and showed it to my dad saying God is telling me to ‘Go in peace’ so do not worry, nothing will happen to me. While I was there, there was a suicide bomber who blew himself right outside our hotel, but nothing happened to me and I came back safely. A week later after I came back, I read the most spine-chilling news in the morning newspaper – an Indian engineer’s body was beheaded and sent back to India. Now I was thinking that it could have been me, but God had said “Go in peace” and I didn’t have to worry.
This is just one experience. There are countless others, where God guided me through this very book that I daily read for direction, for comfort, for everything.
Now I can’t think of any other book that comes close anywhere close to this.
(The author is creative head, Taproot Dentsu Gurgaon. Indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to his views.)
Brands
Faber-Castell India appoints Sunaina Haldar as director – marketing
With stints at Tata, SleepyCat and ADF Foods under her belt, Haldar is primed to redraw Faber-Castell’s brand story
MUMBAI: Faber-Castell India has poached Sunaina Haldar from ADF Foods, appointing her director – marketing as the German stationery brand looks to muscle up in a category that is rapidly reinventing itself around creativity and self-expression.
Haldar hit the ground running. “My first couple of weeks have been incredibly energising, understanding consumers, visiting markets, engaging with retailers and immersing myself into the world of Faber-Castell Group,” she said.
She arrives with considerable firepower. At ADF Foods, Haldar ran marketing across India and international markets for a portfolio spanning Ashoka, Aeroplane, Camel and ADF Soul. Before that, she was vice-president – marketing at direct-to-consumer mattress brand SleepyCat, where she helmed brand, content and performance marketing. Her résumé also includes a stint leading marketing, new product development and CRM for Tata SmartFoodz at Tata Consumer Products, no small proving ground.
Between corporate roles, Haldar also operated as a fractional CMO for early-stage startups, building marketing strategy and operational structures from scratch, a signal that she knows how to move fast with limited resources.
With 18 years straddling FMCG, D2C and the startup world, Haldar now takes the reins at a brand that has long owned the classroom but is clearly hungry for the living room. In a stationery market where the pencil has become a lifestyle statement, Faber-Castell has picked someone who knows exactly how to sell that story.
