Your 5pm to 9pm routine after your 9 to 5?

I can actually tell you my 9pm to 5am schedule. Because I just love the night. I love the silence and solitude. It feels like the world is just yours around that time. I know it’s not particularly healthy, and I am trying to see if I can change it, but as of now, it is what it is. So here’s what my ideal 9pm to 5am looks like.

9pm: dinner and conversation with the family

10pm to midnight: Playing with my almost four-year-old daughter. Then reading to her and getting her to bed.

1:30am: I watch reruns of some good old sitcoms. It helps me sort of wind down.

2:30am: That’s when I do some thinking/writing/reviewing of the briefs that have been playing on my mind through the day.

3:30: I try to get some sort of personal writing done. As Naseer of ZNMD would ask, 'Apne liye bhi kuchh likhte ho?'

4:30am: I make a plan of what the next day looks like. Do some breathing exercises and fall asleep by 5am.

It’s my ideal schedule. And I don’t expect, recommend or encourage anyone to follow it.

A book or show you recently read/watched that you would recommend?

I will always keep recommending Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. It’s a trilogy on four parts! C’mon!

What wins would you like to celebrate from the last six months or a year, at work or in life?

- Getting our house done as per our vision board tops this list.

- Our movement, Barabari Ki Bhasha for Navbharat Times, got discussed by the Rajbhasha department, and they have tagged the PM appreciating and celebrating it.

- Went for a run to the national park with my wife and saw beautiful deer. Once. Want to do more of it.

Which industry leader has impacted you the most?

Piyush Pandey made me join advertising. Pushpinder Singh made me learn advertising. Josy Paul made me love advertising.

A recent ad film from the previous month that caught your attention?

I loved Burger King’s 'Bundle of Joy' outdoor campaign. It’s primal. It’s classic advertising. I heard about the polarising conversation in the Cannes Jury room. Or maybe it’s just my love for burgers.

This first appeared in the July issue of Manifest. Get your copy here.