zaterdag 10 mei 2008

Aarthi Gunnupuri, a TV Network* Mumbai

What happens if your dream job doesn't turn out to be your best job? Indian copywriter Aarthi Gunnupuri used to work for Leo Burnett and recently changed to work for a smaller agency owned by a big TV network. The agency is less known than Leo Burnett, but 90% of the time she spends on writing TV-commercials. Between all her strict deadlines she still managed to write an entertaining article of more than 1000 words.

I had landed a job I thought I would love. The big agency, big accounts, big job. But all I did at my dream job was sit in a corner, surf the net all day and get paid for it (I had three CD’s quit on me, one after the other for better career prospects). “Perfect arrangement,” I thought most of the times, but a tiny bit of me actually liked working. And it’s amazing how an atom-sized, motivated self that exists within me can defeat the 5 feet and 8 inches slacker that I am.

So I’ve moved from my dream job to a job that pays very well. A creative agency-cum- production house owned by a largish TV network, where I am just another cog in the wheel. But a very, very busy cog. Juggling 5-8 briefs a day. That’s a super-sized dollop of unpleasant reality for someone who spent all her time on tabloidwhore and pagesix.com for one whole year (I followed all the Acts of “The Disintegration of Britney Spears” up until last month, when I started this damn job).

And this is my week:

Monday Morning. I am the archetypical Monday-Morning-Blues sufferer and “Manic Monday” by Bangles is my anthem! Making matters worse was my aching back. I had spent all of Sunday in front of the computer, putting together some research for my NCD. Okay, I know what you’re thinking, I am not sucking up. I just happen to like research work ;)

Monday turns out to be the longest day of my week. A slim ray of happiness lights up my day when my CD appreciates a film that I have written (early Monday morning). But I am happier because after a long time I like what I’ve done too!!! Nobody’s opinion matters more than my own. I am like that only (A common Indian English phrase which roughly translates to “That’s the way I am”, but it loses its essence when put like that).

On Monday I also have a fight with my best friend (best friend???? Yes, I am 6 years old), that too on chat. There are only two places I hang out with my friends now-a-days, online or on the phone. And I feel drained out at the end of the day.

Tuesday Morning….errr…Noon. I wake up at 12:45 p.m. to a text from my best friend. She says she’s okay with the way I am and that she will stand by me…I should be super happy and reply instantly. Instead I go into a bizarre, manic mode. I am connecting my phone to my laptop, I had a deadline for 1 p.m. I overslept, it’s too late to get to work, so may be I can work on the brief and mail it from home in the next, uhhh, 15 minutes!!!

An hour later I am heading to work. So, did I manage to finish it? Well, let’s just say
from now on, I am not cocky enough to think that I can actually crack a TV Commercial in 15 minutes, script it out and send it across… while brushing my teeth, making coffee and battling a dismal internet connection!

After “facing the music” for my missed deadline, I am punished further with a long list of briefs. I panic, I wonder where I am headed in life, what I am doing with it. I can’t see clearly through this fog of briefs, deadlines, bosses and colleagues…. I want to write about love and friendships and cities and people and LIFE…not a promo for a Life Insurance. My intercom’s buzzing, it’s my boss…. “Aarthi, where’s the Life Insurance script…” And that’s the only bit of introspection I end up doing all week.

Wednesday, however, ends on a grand note. It’s my friend’s Birthday, we have to meet for dinner at 9:30 and at 8 p.m. I am still stuck with an idea I’ve been trying to crack for two days. I have a real crap idea…. but I don’t care, I just want to meet my friend. So I cross my fingers and I tell my CD the crap idea. She rejects it, as expected. “Okay,” I think, frustrated, “I am not going to be able to do this. Either I slink out of here and make it to dinner or cancel.” Just then something happens….an idea! I bounce it off my CD who says “yeah” excitedly….and I am smiling again.

I have 20 minutes to make it to dinner and am not stuck with a brief anymore. Yaaay! However, 20 minutes later, I find myself stuck in the infamous Bombay traffic.

Finally I meet my friend and we talk about advertising and life and how post-25 is not a good age to be a single woman in India. She’s an Art Director at ONM, Mumbai – a big, bitchy agency that’s NOT for the faint hearted. You are expected to produce brilliant work, spend about 22 hours a day in the agency while get paid about ¼ of what you would get anywhere else. But that way, they weed out anybody who’s not there for the love of advertising….I guess. There has to be a reason why they win more awards locally and internationally than all the other big agencies put together.

The whole of Thursday I slack off at work, I have 4 briefs, which I have the luxury to procrastinate on. So I do just that, surfing the net, pfaffing, drinking coffee in the canteen…ah bliss!

Friday is a little busy, with the pending briefs from the previous day. In the evening, I talk to my friends in Melbourne who’ve moved to agencies there, from Bombay. We talk about our jobs how it’s the same anywhere in the world… briefs, deadlines, ideas, rejections … and in some twisted sort of way…happiness!


* Name of the agency has been removed on request of the author.

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