Thursday, 16 June 2011

Moving On...

Two months short of a year of hiatus - too bad, I know! But then life is like that I guess. Sometimes it flows, as smooth as Dairy Milk Silk, and sometimes there are far too many roadblocks.

My last post was written in utter hopelessness in a land which is now fonder than it was at that time. I lived there for five months, met a lot of relatives for the first time, got along with them like a house on fire and reaffirmed the family girl tag that I already have. To cut a long story short, I was sad to leave that country, and I never thought it would turn out that way.

But then, I came home! That is always a happy place to be, or so I thought! The syndrome that I spoke about in this post had hit third degree by then - come on, it was almost six months since my course had finished, and here I was, doing NOTHING!


The jobhunt began. All roads seemed to lead me the Manorama way- whether it was the radio interview or the channel one that I attended. In the case of the latter one, the interviewer dug out the good old days of camera friendliness from my resume and asked me to host a show for them - while I had originally applied for the post of an Assistant Producer. And thus began my tryst with architecture. Veedu happened.

The Big Man Up There has His own ways of surprising me at the times that I need it the most! Veedu was one such opportunity. Since the time I left anchoring with Kairali TV voluntarily in 2007, I never nurtured a wish to face the video camera again. But I remember, once in Dubai, watching Anjana hosting Veedu and parroting her words, I was wondering how it would be to talk about architecture in such detail. And here I was, doing exactly that!

I got mixed reactions for my second face off with the camera. Acquaintances and pseudo friends said bland things like 'good work' while feedback on costumes, hair style and the like came from closer friends. A few people told me that I had nothing to do in the show and there was nothing intelligent in saying this bedroom is here, that bathroom is there. I was naive and nodded in agreement for the first couple of times. By the third time this remark came to me, I had given it some thought - for God's sake, there is no one job that is intelligent by itself. Intelligence is quite useful for any job - whether you are an engineer, a teacher or a plumber, a little bit of grey matter comes handy. While shooting for the first few episodes, architecture sounded like nothing but Greek and Latin to me. From where I was at that point, if I have come to a place where I am comfortable going for a shoot without any preparation whatsoever - and fully confident of performing well - it is all thanks to some good genes that my parents have given me. It would be serious injustice to them if I did not admit that.

So there I was, sitting comfortably in the anchor boots, and the offer from Radio Mango comes to join them as a Radio Jockey. Surprise again - the interview had happened eons ago and I was convinced that they were not going to call me. And they do, at the time I least expect it!

The final update before I wrap this post is that I have joined them, and I hope that the 'them' soon becomes 'us.' Wish me luck!