Indu (nee Venkataraman) was raised in Bangalore, on an unhealthy diet of Mad magazines since she was eight. A gold medal in journalism landed a job at Deccan Herald, but the chief reporter politely suggested she join an ad agency, seeing her excessive use of exaggeration.

Indu joined JWT, moving from Copy Trainee to Vice President and Executive Creative Director, over twenty-nine years. She’s won several advertising awards, but the most envied one? Not the Cannes Gold, but a whole kilo of actual gold – for writing a winning rhyme for a department store, to complete this sentence ‘I like shopping because…’ (Indu still writes contest slogans to quieten squabbling relatives, eager to be included  in her will).