Piyush Pandey was the Dhoni of advertising, says historian Ramachandra Guha

A leaking verandah had smudged Piyush Pandey’s script when he was ruminating under a window ledge. That innocuous every day event would give him the idea of a son forcing a father on his deathbed to add zeros to his will — while a water drop erases the all-important ‘1’ at the start of the amount. It’s how ‘Dr Fixit’ waterproofing joined legions of other brands — from Cadbury’s humming-word ‘kuch khaas hai’ to Asian Paints’ sentimental festive film and Fevicol’s hoot of inseparable sketches — in getting etched on minds.

Pandey’s old friend and former Test opener Arun Lal had jingles running in his mind on Friday, since the time he heard about his death. Besides a mourning universe of Indian advertising, the legendary adman, who died at 70 , left behind cricket-mates from his college yea