Lessons from work
When I started working a few years back, I was wrapped in a bundle of naivety and probably the person who hired me sensed that. It wasn’t my first job but in many ways, it was.
On a cold December morning, as I opened my computer, a message popped on the messenger, asking if I would be interested in doing a fiction film, ‘but what is the duration?’. ‘2 months’. The reply was straight and to the point. Leaving a permanent job which I hated for a 2 month project made no sense at all. However, heart took over logic and I sent my CV, without thinking twice.
The same day as most people in office left for various meetings, I got a call from someone who after having a brief conversation on the role and the project, asked me to come for an interview. ‘Post 7?’ ‘That will be too late’.
‘Oh, I cannot come during the day. I have office’.
Just before I was about to hang up, the person on the other side said, ‘we are coming to Sohna Road day after. Can we meet?’ I readily agreed. With all the smugness that I said Sohna Road, I didn’t have the slightest of clue where that place was. On asking a colleague, I paid some 100 bucks to the auto guy, braved the icy cold winds and reached the place where we were scheduled to meet. Already apologetic for the fact that I was late, I realised that he hadn’t yet arrived. I spent the next few minutes looking at my phone and hoping that this was not a joke. Sitting on the steps near a bakery, I even remember what I was wearing — a cream coloured head band which I have now lost, a grey sweatshirt which I still have and blue denims. The interview, happened under a tree where I was asked everything from what I studied, what is it that I am doing, what was the grammar of cinema, what did continuity mean, whether I had done multi cam, what was switching — the list was long yet I remember everything distinctly.
As I walked back to work after the meeting, I knew in my heart that this was what I had to do. And I secretly prayed for it to work out, unlike the many things which hadn’t in the past few months. The next few days were a series of will it or won’t it. My hands itched to text him to ask if there was any update but I decided to practice patience which I am not too good at, just by the way. A couple of days had passed and there was nothing — no mail, no call, no text, until one day I got a call asking me to come and meet the creative head at 03:30. In my excitement, I reached at 02:15 and was asked to wait. What followed was another round of interview, albeit more intense and another ‘we’ll let you know’. Thankfully, the reply to that came within 2 hours and I was asked to join the next day.
The 2 month contract eventually turned into 5. Post which I did another project. Then another. Followed by a break where I travelled to the remotest corners of India shooting a film for a corporate giant. I came back to do another project. On its completion, I left that place to discover new things, people and experiences.
That was my first job in television, which paved way for so many others. A job which I can never forget. It taught me so much. It made me grow but it also made me go, which I feel is also a learning, perhaps of a different nature.