It sure is difficult to keep pace with ad man and theatre-person, Suhel Seth, the new face on the block, who is fast turning into the city's flavour of the season. It was last winter that I first saw him in Mahesh Dattani's Where There Is A Will and Bravely Fought The Queen. In both the plays, the rosy-complexioned, stocky, babyface actor played the pompous and arrogant son to perfection. Since then, the chattering class has been frequently seeing Seth both on and off stage.

But it was not Delhi, but the City of Joy where Seth grew up, which nurtured his passion for acting. Not many of us know that he made his film debut at the age of 12, playing Amjad Khan's son in Satyajit Ray's Shatranj Ke Khilari. It was followed by two Mrinal Sen's films. As for theatre, the young actor shared the stage with the likes of Utpal Dutt and Badal Sarkar. And when I. S. Johar staged Bhutto, Seth played the lead and was even arrested for it.

His love for Calcutta is complete, in the sense that he has co-authored not one, but two books on the city -- one with Khushwant Singh and the other with Laxman. It was also in Calcutta that he helped form Concern Calcutta -- a citizens group to protect the city's environment from garbage and traffic pollution. And it is to Seth and Concern Calcutta's credit that the stinky parks have been turned into clean study joints for children. Now, Concern Delhi is being floated on the same lines.

For someone who began as a management trainee with Ogilvy and Mather barely a decade ago, Suhel's career graph has only been going skyward. After starting with advertising, he moved to Mumbai as head of marketing with an investment bank. Two years ago, he chucked the cushy job and moved to Delhi to start Equus, an ad agency, along with brother Swapan. It was a risk, no doubt, but one that has worked for the Seth brothers.

In case you are wondering about what Equus means, well, it's horse in Greek, which also happens to be the title of their favourite play. Obviously, it has found the right people to back it. Today, besides Daewoo, Equus's clients include Coca-Cola, Dabur, Apollo Tyres, Harvest Gold and Duncans.

But more than just business, it is companies like these that Seth is roping in to contribute to various causes in the city, whether it is inculcating a sense of giving and social responsibility among schoolkids, encouraging street theatre, planting trees, cleaning up the parks, or providing well-equipped playfields for residential colonies.

Overflowing as he is with ideas, a conversation with Seth is both fun and soul-stirring. He somehow manages to generate high levels of enthusiasm, an attitude I find rather attractive, for nothing really seems to excite me these days. Interesting men continue to elude me and I often wonder if Delhi has any exciting members of the species left. Given the city's set of stale and boring faces, someone like Seth is a welcome addition.

I don't need to say that Delhi is a city which can propel you to dizzy heights and also pull you down with equal velocity. We can only hope that Seth continues to electrify the other denizens of the city and does not become just another me-too.