One year at TOI

On 4th June 2008 I will complete a career milestone. It will be one year since I would've first walked into the historic Times of India building at Bori Bunder. It is an organisation every student when learning journalism scoffs at and then itches to join. I was one among them.

The job (feature writer) at TOI is my third job having previously worked with an online data company called Baseline Studiosystems for Hollywood and then for DNA where I was shifted around departments more regularly than Paris Hilton makes news. The jobs lasted sixs months each and I was reveling in the fact that I could not be tied down by any organisation. That could only mean more experience with more organisations. But on the very first day of joining I promised myself I would at least last two years at TOI. Because ultimately I fell in the rat race of cleaning up my CV for my future employers who could not look upon my work experience and think of me as a dandy happy-go-lucky twenty-something bloke, which of course I am.
And herein lies my grouse. My work ethic counts for naught before the number of months (and now years) I give to a job. Why should a job be measured by time rather than passion and commitment. I have hardly had any substantial increments in my job-hopping spree. My salary has increased by 5K over these 3 jobs, and my sister, who worked for a call centre earned double of what I got last month. Clearly then, I am not in this field for the money. What I want is enough contancts and goodwill to last me even when I am not actively a part of this great media circus in India.
I will admit one year at TOI has been great. My friendship with a few celebrities has gone beyond the professional distinction of journalist and star, I have met a lot of journalists and am part of a very cool team of people, spoken to musical biggies like Klaus, Rudolph from the Scorpions, 50 Cent, Beyonce, America, Iron Maiden apart from other indi-bands and singers, I have hopped on Jet Airways to Bhopal twice to do some unusual stories and met a lot of people from the poor, tribal and neglected part of the city as well. I have also seen enough of journalism to know that it's a field where the demands and pressure of the job tend to make one cynical and superficial to society after a point in time at the sheer madness of it all. But if there's anything I fear losing more than my writing, it's my sense of humanism so yes, journalism is not a life-long career option, fun though it may be at this stage.
It has been a year rich in experience and the following year can only be better. Will it be at TOI or no is the question to answer though. Because I still have that individualistic streak of creating something unique and different and everyday the urge to write something - a script or a novel - gets bigger. I dont know how long I can ignore it. But it's not possible to do this while working and that is the biggest dilemma. Do I stake everything and run away to do a writing course abroad as I have been dreaming ever since graduating or do I sit and let time take its own course? I dont know and I'll be damned if God can help me.
Amen.