Copy test with Ogilvy - A

This is one of the articles I had written as part of my copy test with Ogilvy. No, I didn't take the job due to several reasons; money being the biggest of them. Hope you enjoy reading it...

(Excerpt from the Journal of Shri. Laloo Prasad Yadav. Translated from the original Bihari script.)

May 31, 1974.
I had the weirdest dream last night. I dreamt that father had taken me to meet Pilot Uncle, an old friend of his, in Pondicherry. Pilot Uncle, or Capt. Balasubramanium Venkataraman Muraganathan Swami was a retired Indian Air Force pilot. He had, in his ancestral mansion, several accolades from the time he served in the Air Force. Also as a special honour, to commemorate his long and faithful service, the Government allowed him to keep his decommissioned MiG fighter plane, Khusboo.

Khusboo was a real beauty. Pilot Uncle had taken good care of her. Everything from the paint to the engine was in good condition. Long had it been since Khusboo surfed through the skies, where she truly belonged. She looked sad; sad as that child, punished by her parents and made to stay at home. I wish Rabri were here to see this…

The clock struck 12:00 midnight. Oh no! Rabri! I had forgotten that today was our 1st anniversary! I should have never agreed to join father on this visit! My poor Rabri, all alone on our first wedding anniversary! How could I have misjudged? No, I must get to her as soon as possible… But how?

“Pilot Uncle,” I said, “I have to get back to Patna immediately!” “Calm down, son! What is the matter?” He asked. After I had explained everything, there was a long silence. Pilot Uncle reached into his pockets and pulled out a key. He tossed me the key and I caught it. Our eyes met as he said with a smile, “Go, son! Hurry!”

I raced towards the MiG plane and started the engines… Wait! There was no seatbelt! I couldn’t let this stop me from getting to my beloved… There had to be another way! I prayed to our family goddess to come to my aid. And then it struck me –

My lucky red shoelace! I had forgotten about it! I tied each end to the sides of the seat, secured myself firmly and took off! No distance was too great, no valley too deep and no mountain too tall to keep me away from my beloved. I raced past the clouds with only Rabri on my mind.

I landed the plane effortlessly in our courtyard. Our ever-alert cows and buffaloes began mooing at the ruckus that the plane made. I entered the house and found her asleep. I woke her up gently. She looked at me and smiled. “Oh! It’s you,” she said, as she gingerly pulled her sari over her head. “Come,” I said, “I have something to show you!”

There in the courtyard, instead of the plane, lay a table for two. I took her by the hand and led her to the table. We shared a romantic candle lit dinner underneath our ancestral banyan tree, the cattle melodiously harmonising to our love song. And then I woke up…

I called up Pilot Uncle, the next morning, from the STD booth at the local grocery and describe the entire dream to him. He chuckled, “Laloo Prasad Yadav! You were born for great things, my son! Who knows? Someday you might just become the Chief Minister!”


*The above story includes the following 4 elements required in the copy test – Red lucky shoelace, a decommissioned MiG fighter plane, Laloo Prasad Yadav and a candle lit dinner.