Weekends are all about downtime. After a week full of work to meet deadlines, everybody needs some breather to relax and recuperate. From watching a favourite web series to planning a vacation, weekends are designated as family and me time. Vineet, founder and CEO, Magnon Group; CEO, Omnicom Production (India), talks to BrandWagon Online about his weekends, favourite vacation destination and more.
What is the one thing you like to do when not working?
Read a book, for sure. Books make me time-travel. Nothing soothes my nerves more than a great fiction novel or a well-written historical text. Sometimes, strumming the rusty strings of my old guitar also brings back my love for music.
How do you spend your weekends?
Very hard to answer this question, especially in the current context of 70-hour-work-weeks and staring-at-the-wife narratives! I confess, with some embarrassment, that Saturdays are fully working for me. I need that day to clear the backlog of the week gone by. Sometimes, when I am not crushed under workload, I also use this day to write my books.
What are your favourite gadgets?
It would be the PlayStation, if it still falls in the category of gadgets. I am proud to share that I have fully completed the Assassins’ Creed series, the God of War series, and the Uncharted series. I am yet to tackle Red Dead Redemption and Far Cry.
Given an option to choose another career, what would it be?
I would be an Artist. To be honest, I am an Artist at heart. I would write film scripts, form a music band, direct theatre, and author books. What a life that would be! But like Pablo Picasso said – The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. I guess I grew up with a wee bit more love for organisation-building than following the path of pure art. Tough choice, at the end of the day.
Which is your favourite vacation spot?
My own quaint bungalow in the mountains of Mukteshwar. That splendid, mystical place brings me somewhat closer to whoever runs the universe. And also makes me feel like Ruskin Bond – scribbling away on his writing pad, crafting beautifully obscure stories like The Night Train at Deoli as it snows outside the windows. After Mukteshwar, Rome would be the next spot. I could spend months in that city, lost in its infinite history, culture, & architecture.
A TV show, a movie, and an ad campaign you highly recommend watching.
Silicon Valley took me by surprise. I never imagined I would get glued to it like I did. As for a movie, all those of us who haven’t watched Irrfan Khan and Jimmy Shergill’s Haasil, stop everything you are doing and watch it now! Irrfan will blow your mind. An ad-campaign I loved was not technically an ad-campaign, but was part of the Mel Gibson movie What Women Want. It was the Nike – ‘No games. Just sports.’ ad-film.