Five key changes that professional life brought to me

It has been more than a year in professional life. And these 14 months have been tough, challenging, exciting, learning and brought ‘happy moments’, too. Although, I am still ‘childish’ at heart, the attribute, which I never want to part with, there have been some significant changes after foraying into job. The most noteworthy changes are below, though not in the same order:

Commutation by Metro: The one major change that I faced after landing in the national capital was travelling by metro trains. It was an altogether different experience for a person coming from Tier II city. For me, travelling by train was only meant for far-off places to visit our relatives, which, always used to lit my face and fill my heart with immense joy and pleasure.

Contrary to this, now standing at the platform, looking at the digital timer and number of coaches of the coming train fail to bring cheer to me. It’s always race against time. Everyone is in a hurry to reach office, school, college, etc. Initially, the scene used to give jitters to me as I never saw this kind of rush, crowd, pushing and pulling one another to, anyhow, put one’s body in the coach to reach at time. I have still not become comfortable to the trend, and with a big heart, allow other people to get into the jam packed coach and wait for another one.

Working time/Shift work: I remember, even during school, our classes used to start from 8’o clock. But, the concept of shift work and an urge to be ‘best and fast’ from the rest, we are dropped to our office at 7 in the morning. With the feeling of ‘I haven’t taken required sleep’, nostalgia I take my seat to work for the progress of the company.

Still, I feel lucky, as I have not been in the night shift till date. When I see my colleagues sitting at their desktops, struggling to stay awake and work I look above and say, God, you have been really nice to me!! .

Office work: Although, I was aware that media job is a lot more demanding than others, the real picture was way beyond the image I had in my mind. The fixed 9-hour shift generally gets extended to 10, 10.5 hrs, sometimes 12 hours also and every time you are on toes as you don’t know, which moment a ‘breaking news’ can come. 

Wait for week-offs: The whole school and college time was full of masti, unlimited fun, jokes and loud laughter. The classes were so entertaining, that I never waited for weekends to meet friends and share our feelings, thoughts and emotions. The hostel life was also enjoyable, and since mine was a residential university, I never had ‘dearth’ of people to talk to.

However, nowadays, I eagerly wait for my two week-offs, the most precious days, for which I have a long plan, but most of the times, I end up sleeping, doing laundry and other important chores.

Managing finances: Last, but certainly, not the least, I am learning how to run home and managing finances. The day salary gets transferred to my account; I prepare a budget and allocate a particular amount to every small and big item, required for day-to-day life.

By saying this, I also mean I have started to understand the value of every rupee. Although, I have never been a spendthrift, getting into a job has made me learn how to spend money wisely and judiciously.

Vision counts more than formal education degree...

It is a common conviction that formal education and higher academic degrees are pre- requisites to be successful and super achievers in life. However, if we give even a fleeting view to the successful people around the world we would find there are plenty of mortals who have had dismal educational background but went on to earn the title of ‘living legends’ in their respective fields. Numerous examples could be cited to validate the point that a strongly desired vision coupled with firm determination and perseverance counts more than university degree to succeed in life.

For instance, Rabindranath Tagore, India’s greatest polymath of all time was a school dropout. But did that affect the bard in reaching milestones and carving out a niche for himself anyway? The answer is no. It was his great vision and wisdom that helped ‘Gurudev’ reach the acme.

Similarly, wizard of the willow, Bharat Ratna Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar is not even tenth standard pass. But his ‘less education’ was in no way an impasse in reaching greatest heights and making mountain of records in his cricket career. The urge to do something out of the box and sheer tenacity were the attributes that made Sachin what he is today.

Outside India, Bill Gates, former world’s richest person and founder of the Microsoft Company didn’t complete his education at Harvard University. In spite of this, he wrote history and gifted the world with the greatest software company- Microsoft Corporation. Another American Mark Zuckerberg left Harvard University only to invent social networking site- Facebook which has 1.2 billion monthly active users worldwide. 

Thus, the bottom-line is that education, indeed, is important in one’s life but more than mere knowledge it’s wisdom, vision and attitude towards life that determine the fate of a person.

Blur Hype, Focus Substance

Cinema-making and viewing has undergone a sea change since its dawn in India. So has been promoting and publicizing it. During early days too, films were promoted but their ways and tools were far more primitive and extremely limited. 

Previously, films’ posters and other outdoor media were the major tool used for promoting any film. Another means popular during those days was mobile promotion through auto rickshaw in which there used to be an announcer visiting every localities promoting the film and invoking the public to watch it. 

Among the mass media, occasional and rare stories in print medium and infrequent promotion in radio were the only ones to reach out to masses. Also, focus was more on pre- production and production stages of the film with less attention being attributed to the promotional activities.

Today, the face of promotion has transformed completely. Actually today, Cinema as an art has been lost somewhere and the concept of a commercial version instead and show business has stepped in. 

Today, largely, films are made and promoted in the name of actors and stars, rather than script and direction. It has become an indispensable fashion to promote every film through its lead pairs. The most sought after promotional medium, nowadays, is Television, and particularly, the most popular TV show- ‘Comedy Nights with Kapil’ and the alikes. It has become the obvious rostrum to promote the upcoming Bollywood films.

However, this new trend is itself questionable. The statistics show that even today films become hits and fair well in box office only when they have tight script, intelligent direction, over- the-top- presentation and powerhouse performance of the actors. 

There can be innumerable examples where films which have been heavily promoted everywhere, of course, through the actors, faired very badly and incurred huge losses. Some prominent examples from the recent times could be RA.one, Kites, Aaja Nachle, Jai Ho, Zanjeer (new), among others. 

All the mentioned films had superstars who have huge fan following, but still, they could not attract public to the theatres resulting in financial failure at the box office.

In contrast, films like Kahani, Vicky Donor, Madras Café, and Lunch Box turned out to be box office marvels, despite their normal promotion.Thus, the bottom-line is that substance is the heart of any movie. Of course, promotion is necessary as things have changed today. 

Still, what has not changed is the reason for success and failures of the films. There could be certain exceptions in this regard, but exceptions, however miraculous they may be, can’t be generalized.

Hence, film- makers need to introspect and think twice before investing enormous bucks in the promotional activities. Rather, they should invest more in creating quality works that includes in- depth study and research and creative visualization before presenting it on silver screen.

‘Because you are our LEADERS’…

The downward slope of the graph of morality and socially accepted behavior among our ‘respected’ politicians got a further dip with the recent statement by Salman Khurshid on Modi. His ‘impotent’ remark on the BJP prime ministerial candidate is certainly not acceptable. Being a representative of the people and holding such a significant office in the cabinet, Khurshid must have thought twice before giving such immoral statements publicly. It was more bewildering when he openly said to the media that he has done nothing wrong in calling Modi so.

Well, this is not the first time when our political leaders have flaunted such cheap gesture. Before this, Congress MP Digyavijay Singh has been hogged into limelight several times for articulating inappropriate terms for their opposition. And not only Congress, politicians from almost all the parties have invited controversy with their passionate statements in the recent past.

The trend is really not going down well with the people of this country. This time maximum number of youth will exercise their franchise in the coming general election and with the rise in awareness and education level, it is obvious that these self destructing acts will certainly take a toll on the parties’ performance. The politicians must not forget that there is an intense fire burning within most of the people to see a positive change. Hence, these cheap criticisms and diatribe thrown to one another will give a wrong message to the change seekers and might become counter- productive too.

Secondly, leaders are the ones who are looked upon. They are admired, adored and loved by the common masses. But when these leaders start behaving like a common people, complaining and reacting to every petty issue, it compels to question –‘are they our leaders in real sense’? They are meant to set an example, a benchmark for the rest of the country through their balanced approach in dealing issues, managing crisis and also countering their opposition. But, unfortunately they are not.

Politicians need to realize that their public image, public speech and public appearance are in constant vigilance by the citizens. Hence, they must abide by the decorum and learn to behave responsibly.

Do we work to live or live to work?

Homo sapiens are considered the most intelligent and productive ones amongst the existing species on the earth. Applying their inquisitive brain and analytical mind, humans have gradually evolved and come a long way. Their ever- changing needs are the sole driving force for every watershed development in the history of Human Civilization. Earlier the need was to earn livelihood to support the family and manage two ends’ meal. However, with the passage of time and advent of new information, technology, concepts, ideas and thoughts, the human psyche has widened and so their needs and requirements. In today’s Information/ Technological Age, very often the question arises, ‘whether mortals of present time, work to live or live to work’?

The world has changed drastically, since the era of Stone Age. The highly sophisticated period of today has brought about phenomenal shifts in the life and living of human beings. There is a greater sense of insecurity, instability, hatred and earnest urge to achieve one-upmanship among the people.  “Moolah” rules most of the mortals’ heart and in order to possess it more and more, living, relishing and appreciating life has taken a back seat. Everyone seems to be in a rush to earn more, acquire state of the art equipment and don a glamorous countenance. To achieve and accomplish all these things, people work during the stipulated official hour and then to earn more, do overtime and yet again, are in a constant quest for part time jobs.

Amid this dumbfounding race, people fail to realize and ruminate over what for they have been running so speedily over the years. The obsession to earn, possess and secure more has to stop at a point where from it starts squeezing out the very essence of human life. 

  

As it goes by the common wisdom, one has to strike a judicious balance.