3rd Year Special Annual Double Issue Vol 4 Issue 1 & 2 Jan - Apr 2 3rd Year Special Annual Double Issue Vol 4 Issue | Page 61

is from Assam’s famed tea gardens. And the gentleman from Assam who supplies my annual quota of tea is a humble, publicity shy bloke - Pradip Chakraborty, who is based in India’s Tea Town - Dibrugarh. Pradip has silently been working as a crusader of Assam’s Tea Tourism for close to three decades now and he has been promoting Assam Tea in metropolitan India - Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore and Vizag through “Word- of-Mouth” publicity via the burgeoning Bengali community domiciled in these cities. Today, the Bengali Bhadralok’s penchant for tea is well known and this small town guy from one of the remotest corners of India’s North East has been promoting the finest variety of Assam Tea with literally no support from the Government. As if to prove a point to the mandarins of Assam’s Tea Industry, he has successfully shipped a consignment of fine quality Assam Tea to faraway Papua New Guinea, a country located to the north of Australia, renowned for its pristine beaches, magnificent coral reefs and active volcano spots. Thanks to Pradip’s awe-inspiring enterprise, today Assam Tea has found its way into the living rooms of the upper-crust residences in Port Moresby. These days, innovation is the buzzword and the moment I suggested Pradip to do an Ad Film on Assam Tea in the icy backdrop of Norway, he was quick to identify the tremendous impact that the advertisement would generate in the burgeoning Indian marketplace. So off we went - Zip, Zap, Zoom ! Norway. We boarded the Air India flight from Delhi and landed in Oslo, the capital of Norway. Needless to say, we were fatigued after the 14 hour flight. But, having done our pre-departure homework meticulously, the transition to Scandinavia was smooth. With hotel bookings in place, cruise ship holidays reserved, bespoke sightseeing itineraries and multiple vantage locations for Ad Films selected well in advance, meant that we were 100% assured of a Rollercoaster Norway sojourn. Vol 4 | Issue 1 |Jan - Feb 2019 Hats off to the mandarins of Norway’s Tourism Department - Visit Norway! They have a dedicated Media & Press Centre and the executives are not just knowledgeable but also have deep insight into Norwegian culture and lifestyle. Since we had come with the primary business of shooting an Ad Film on Assam Tea, the Media Centre was well prepared with their plan of action, offering us with a multiplicity of suggestions to choose the most appropriate locale for shooting the documentary. After more than 5 hours of Audio Visual displays with supporting background information on each region, we were still nowhere near to finding the right setting for our Ad Film. Finally, thanks to the resourcefulness of the Media Centre professionals, we winded up to have an impromptu lunch that offered us all with an escape route to refresh ourselves and think creatively in our Post-lunch session. Nowhere else have I seen such professionalism in the media circles as with the ones that I met at Visit Norway. Post-lunch, a renowned Norwegian Ad Film expert was invited to join in the deliberations and he sought all kinds of information pertaining to Assam Tea - Of how the British East India Company first planted the tea saplings,how tea is manufactured, Assam’s culture, lifestyle and the geography part. Once we finished our presentation, he insisted that we choose the Northern Lights as that would offer the most appropriate setting for the Ad Film on Assam Tea. And the affable Norwegian went that extra mile to choose the exact spot for our Film - Svalbard. Why Svalbard ? Svalbard, because of its icy Fjords, majestic glaciers and its proximity to the North Pole. Svalbard is not just wilderness. Its Arctic Wilderness personified and the terrain is rugged to say the least. Since 61