In reality I believe the best way this profession could be described is in the words of a colleague who had to once explain it to one his octogenarian grandparents. His grandfather(who by the way lives in a small village just outside of Faizabad) kept pestering him by asking the same question again and again - beta aakhir tumhari kampany banati kya hai? sabun/tel/shampoo ya... ya ... kapda? Even kapda was a little far-fetched in the conversation as the grandfather tried his best to be creative and think up of all the professions he could fathom his dear grandson to be in after spending so much time and money on education. The grandson - all polished and emmaculate in his attire - with his 25000 words vocabulary and 3 national awards for debating - the Director's Merit List Holder from IIM-X - was finally at a loss of words. 2 and half hours and three lime juices later all he was able to explain was dadaji hum log doctors ki tarah hain - kamapneez ke doctors, hum log kampaniyon ko bimariyon se bachate hain.
Not sure how close the definition is to the reality, it sure leaves out the messy details that one of my other colleagues used to explain it to one of his undergrad friends (who had actually started a shop for toddlers' clothing in a small B-town in North India and is earning 5 times more than his friend - the one doing the explaining). Again the same question was popped up - yaar what does your company actually produce matlab banati kya hai, kuch manufacture karti hogi na? To this, the answer that was very well placed was Yaar we guys manufacture ppts and excels - mostly excels matlab kyunki woh high margin hote hain .. and some ppts based on demand. The rather flummoxed friend decided not to "deep dive" into the discussion as his limited knowledge of computers was being exploited by the Consultant.
Jokes apart, it is rather a difficult profession to define in India(much difficult to be in as well - but that would be a separate blog, this one's on definition - first things first, thats what they teach you in IIMs), but overall it is something which a lot of people dream to be in today.
There's more to come on definitions but I have to leave for now ...
cheers
The Fake One
