MTV's 'Suds' in a lather over Jakarta red-carpet welcome

MTV staff members around the region appear to be determined not to let the grass grow under the feet of senior executives domiciled in the music channel's Singapore headquarters.

Sudhanshu Sarronwala, MTV's senior vice-president for marketing and research, was alternately mortified and poleaxed by a reception laid on for him by the channel's Jakarta-based marketing manager Daniel Tumiwa when he visited Indonesia earlier this month.

A hectic schedule had prevented 'Suds', as he is known, from visiting the Jakarta operation as often as he would have wished, and Mr Tumiwa decided to make it a trip to remember.

Leaving the aircraft, Mr Sarronwala saw an attendant bearing a placard with his name. Entering the terminal a smiling welcoming committee garlanded the MTV executive with a fragrant necklace of blooms.

Could it get worse? It could indeed. Mr Sarronwala was ushered into what he swore was a bullet-proof Volvo; on the flanks rode two sunglass-wearing police escorts on motorcycles, their sirens blaring, onlookers wondering just who was the big cheese in their midst who didn't need the airport bus into town.

'By now I was hysterical, embarrassed and completely bowled, lock stock and barrel by the truly unpredictable MTV-in-his-soul personality, Mr Daniel Tumiwa,' commented Mr Sarronwala of the moment when the police escort and the Volvo driver cranked up their speed down a highway lane that had been cleared for his use, despite the fact that it was rush hour.

'I stand exhilarated and humbled,' recalled a shaken and stirred Mr Sarronwala afterwards.