Jakarta Tales Vol 9: All in a day's work

Hi,

Ready with the coffee mug? Good. Legs crossed on the chair? Perfect. Cushion behind head? Superb! Is it raining outside? No? That’s okay.

I’m sure it’s a beautiful day nevertheless – blue skies scattered with fluffy white cauliflower clouds playing hide and seek, birds chirping (interrupted by noisy crows), faint sound of cars swishing by, chatting with old friends on MSN, remembering your best school trip or that wild night out, soft music playing on your mp3 player and grinning to yourself as you type “lolz”.

Mmmm, life and its little pleasures.

Why am I sounding so mellow? It will be a year in a few weeks’ time, that’s why. And it seems like it all began yesterday.

Now scroll down.

Since November, I've been to beautiful-but-boring Singapore twice (once for a beach rave called Zoukout! 9000 women in bikinis, do I need to say more? Umm, well, world-class DJs, music of a lifetime but nah, 9000 sexy girls!), made a genuine friend there in Made, went to Bali twice too but for religious and professional reasons more than a holiday, once more to Malang for Eid (my boss's family crosssed all limits of hospitality, I am so indebted to them) and onwards to Mt Bromo - Indonesia's answer to locales seen in Lord of the Rings and – arguably the most beautiful mountainous landscape I've ever seen, on a sailing trip to Sepa and an uninhabited island in the Java Sea, to Taman Safari - an open zoo and the world's first of it's kind drive in safari and... umm, I guess that's it.

I've run out of money so can't do more but am still keen on visiting Yogyakarta, the Borobudur Temples, Bunaken in Sulawesi (described by Travel and Living as one of the 3 best snorkel and dive sites in the world), Komodo island (the world's only natural habitat for komodo dragons), Flores (the island with Mt Kelimutu - the mountain with 3 lakes that change colour during the day!), Sumatra (for authentic Padang cuisine and visiting Lake Toba - which has an island the size of Singapore right in the middle of the lake) and... phew, the list will go on I guess.

Indonesia is such a beautiful country with so much potential. Can't help it. But Indonesians aren't that clever. That's for sure. The education levels, political and corporate setup and corruption prove sit. All the "comfort" is superficial and not for the masses.

More importantly, they haven't been able to market their country (arguably the most naturally endowed in SE Asia) to the rest of the world. In fact, let me ask you, how many of you had heard of the places above untill I told you? I guess none. Neither did I, until I got here myself. Worse, most Indonesian themselves, grappled with superstitions and fears after the tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and the erstwhile narrow-minded rule of Soeharto haven't ventured beyond Java or to visit the country's numerous natural bounties.

From the work perspective, we successfully setup a media-neutral, new media focused advertising agency called The Bakery. With God's grace and our efforts, we are doing considerably well having won 3 new accounts within a matter of weeks, lost many more but are turning into a happy family. Exigo is now focusing solely on brand activation and is also doing well with two new accounts under its belt. We are in the process of setting up a special retail management and channel activation unit called Barcode. It hasn't kickstarted the way we wanted it to but we are optimistic it will stand up on its feet given time, patience, hardwork and of course, money.

All of this is now being clubbed under one group - Marketing Kommunikasi Indonesia (MKI). The name is self-explanatory. We've grown from 5-15 people, but with a lot of chop and churn, new faces and revised responsibilities.

The Bakery comprises of Arya - an 8-year old veteran in the Indonesian ad industry having worked with agencies like DDB, TBWA, Leo Burnett - who now heads the brand team as Brand Director. Bobon - a master of the arts in the business with 13 years of wisdom from Lowe, Leo Burnett, Chuo Sen Ko - is our Creative Director, Fenny - this cute girl I have a crush on but she has a boyfriend - is our art director and her inseparable better half, Irvine (she's a girl) is our copywriter. Both were at Leo Burnett before but a passion for doing more and building an agency drew them to us.

Lino, my favourite Chinese friend (with friends like him, who needs enemies) and former art director has left us for taking up family business responsibilities. So has Rio, my support system, friend, enemy, airport pick-up specialist, DJ and bundle of insanity undefined. I miss his house music collection.

My boss's brother and events specialist, Deta is overall responsible for Exigo now. We have a new Account Manager - Adi (over 5 years into the BTL marketing business), a creative programmer - Shiela (from Unilever to Kraft, she is renowned for her expertise with execution), our very own 3-d designer - Daniel (former teacher at LaSalle College of Design Jakarta). Only one of the old boys, Andra, has remained in the core business. The admin team is unchanged.

I, for all that's worth mentioning, am now a Strategic Planner focusing on the specialised area of brand planning for all clients across the Group. Officially, I work for The Bakery but lend a helping hand to brands for Exigo and Barcode if they require some bullshit disguised as smart thinking thrown in. God knows why people think I'd be fit for the job. Maybe because they think I'm crazy.

On hindsight, I'm sure that's the only reason. I walk in late, talk a lot, ask too many questions, get lost while thinking, mumble to myself when making plans and blurt my heart out when presenting to a client - what else could be abnormal. I like it though. I've realised I was made for this. In fact, all my years at Bates and even after getting here, I was wearing two hats without realizing it. I worked as a "suit" or account management person but apart from managing the brands, I was also planning for them. And I didn't know that's what planners do. Aduh! (Damn!) What a late but satisfying realization :)

The most rewarding part of this new setup is when I look back at it and discuss it with my boss, at times. How did we start? We didn't have an organization structure the day I came in. And wow, where are we now? Been a long, tough, winding, satisfying way, hasn't it? For you too, hasn't it... reading all my outpourings since April 2006?

Anyways, I've been learning Chinese (Mandarin) since a few months now (explains why I know how to say Happy New Year). Christmas and New Year was in Jakarta and was fun (but should have been in Bali and Lombok had it not been for an unprecedented and unnecessary piece of esoteric thinking from a colleague! Aaarrgghh!).

Martin - my landlord - moved into a bigger house before 2007 dawned and I tagged along. Was a challenging experience too what with all the new stuff and adapting to do. Rushaid, my friend from Kolkata, arrived in Dec 2006 to start working for Allianz Indonesia. He and I've had our share of fun (oh, I forgot to mention earlier, on Christmas day he and I had a whale of a time at Ancol - the Jakarta Bay and at Dunia Fantasi - the theme park. Folks, try the rides, they are fucking wild!).

What else... ummm... yeah, my birthday. Nothing special. Lunch with colleagues, my face and clothes were drowned with cakes, eggs, coffee and everything edible, dinner party at home with friends, out partying to a new club - Public. Ah yes, that brings me to partying... have been doing that on and off, especially to my favourite club - Blowfish. Try it if you're here. You'll be back more than once, for sure.

Jakarta was flooded with 300 mm of water a few weeks ago. I'm sure you know about it. The Annual Calendar of Natural Disasters continues for this unlucky country. But it still got through it. I wonder how many would. Maybe all, maybe few, maybe none. Says something about the people though - no money but resilience. Maybe that will pay off some day. Anyways, we got through the floods without any water in the new house but our office couldn't escape the barrage of the overflowing river Ciliwang. So a Sunday went in cleaning the office. Was fun but the pest control and dengue scare that plagued the city’s Western areas psyched me out.

Ah yes, I attended this design seminar called Massive Territory here. Was fantastic. More so because I met and interacted with two people from my dream agency - Wieden and Kennedy. Eric and Gino - two delightful, brutally smart and incredibly interesting people from W+K Tokyo's office conducted one session at the seminar.

And we, at The Bakery, possibly lived a part of our dream by taking them out for dinner and getting to know them better. One of the most thought-provoking, introspective days of my experience here. In fact, for all of us it was an opportunity to stop time and ask ourselves where we were headed.

Maybe Eric didn't realise it (Gino, unfortunately couldn't spend much time with us due to an early flight) but his influence lingers on, will stay on. And it strengthened my resolve to make sure that I work with the W+K network at least once in my career. Have to, or else this life is a waste. Am serious about that. For those of you who don't know about W+K, I'm sorry but I don't want to explain. Firstly, it will be difficult for you to understand (no offense... actually, it's the truth) and secondly, if I start, I won't stop.

And yeah, Chinese New Year celebrations were fun. Jakarta's become less familiar though. Time spent has increased, time cherished hasn't. I’ve made lifelong friends in Darren (unbelievably nice bloke from Australia), Mirka (non-German sweetheart from Germany) and Willy (the most enthusiastic person and the first Bosnian I’ve ever met) but Dorien, Sebastian, Charlene, Luca... almost everyone I could call a dear friend has gone back to carry on with their lives. Was quite an emotionally provocative experience that, bidding farewell to everyone. I realised it could have been better had I not been under the illusion that this fairy tale is going to last forever.

And indeed, so isn't Jakarta Tales. Have been trying to get myself to write this line for the past few paragraphs. Just couldn't muster enough courage. Sorry for dragging the rant this time. Maybe the fact that this is the penultimate time you’ll see a subject starting with “Jakarta Tales…” in your inbox could appease you.

Yups, am bidding adieu to Indonesia and this experience in a few weeks’ time. What am I gonna do after this? Don’t’ know. Haven’t thought about it yet. Don’t want to. Just want to spend some time with family and friends back home. It’s been a while since I saw them. And yes, spend some time with myself.

I’ll write the final volume some time before I leave. Don’t know what else to say. My eyes are already getting wet. I started discovering myself during this past one year. Would have happened sooner or later but thank God it started 50 weeks ago. Thank God it happened in this blessed land. Thank God it happened along with some people worth remembering.

Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed your coffee.


Cheers
From your favourite Indian in Jakarta
Yousuf