Selective Amnesia

Uninteresting, moody, irrelevant post. Don’t!

Madras is witness to two types of Rainfall. One is the short, heavy burst. Raging, powerful, but brief. The whole spell lasts no longer than 30 minutes at the most. While brief, it is pungent. Raindrops slash you, piercing the thick hide of dust and grime that collects on you. To hit your very soul.

Then there is the nagging, slow, soft, but persistent rain. The kind that begins slow and hesitant. Like a young maiden. Gaining confidence in itself to grow up. But modest. The kind of rain that threatens to blow over the next minute. But hanging on. Like a loose tooth that doesn’t fall off. Always there, nagging at you.

But what’s rain got to do with this post? Did you read the label correctly? What’s that got to do with work? Have I lost it?

A year and two months in the corporate world, and I am ready to bitch about work. I guess a job that pays you money lets you concentrate your pessimism on other things.

The agency in which I really matured as a writer is like the first kind of rainfall. I spent a very brief period there(compared to the rest of my career, now opening up) and work there was a bit like getting soaked to the bone in a lashing, short rainfall.

Something would come up that I needed to finish off in the next half hour. There would be the agony of not coming up with an idea in less than 5 seconds. There would be the humiliation of coming up with a bad idea. There would be the getting soaked to the bone feeling, after you sweat in relief.

And then, there would be calm, and all of us (in the creative room) would sit and yap and bitch.

I learnt absolutely all that I know of advertising in that agency. I still hold it dear. I got to work with some of the best people I’ve met in the business, and they have each passed me some bit of knowledge that has helped me. One of my bosses kept pushing me, hard, for good work. The other still tells me he was never my boss. The boss who originally hired me still calls me to know if I am doing well in my new agency. I learnt a lot of how to write copy from, ironically, the people who didn’t write copy. From the art directors in that agency. Not to say that the writers didn’t teach me.

And then, I, wanting more exposure, more money, moved to my current agency. And realised that it is like the second kind of rainfall I described.

The work here has the disposition of a Limpet. With Fevi Quick coated legs. I guess I shall stay here for some time (if they let me). Much like the second kind of rainfall that stays on and on for some time.

Work here at my agency is of the kind that is best described as a nagging wife. Do this, do that. We needed it yesterday. And the small things generally get sidelined and they grow big and cancerous. And threaten to explode on you. I am not sure of what exactly my learning here will be. But frankly, I don’t care. I need those three letters on my resume. And the 5 digits they pay me.