A junior designer who became a Copywriter.
A Copywriter who became Manager of Corporate Communication.
A Manager who stepped down and stepped up to become a Senior
Copywriter.
A Senior Copywriter who became a Senior Manager of Content.
A Senior Manager of Content who became a Creative Lead.
The Creative Lead who was pushed back to become a mere
Copywriter.
A Copywriter who will defy nonsense henceforth because he
deserves to continue as a Creative Lead.
I am slightly or maybe completely inspired by the legendary
quote from the forever favourite flick – GLADIATOR. Also on very few occasions,
I’ve been this vocal about my feelings and opinions about situations that I am
surrounded with.
To make a beginning, Diwali holidays are over. I am not
ashamed to reveal that I was very much pleased to remain detached from work,
for the whole of four days. No phone calls. No ugly smses. No negative
competition. Absolutely at peace with loved ones. The same loved ones, who wait
for hours to see me return from the workplace. But I don’t return. How do I
return because there are some blind people around me, who only open their eyes
to see me depart and never see me enter! They don’t have a life of their own
because they remain immersed in fake show-offs.
Therefore there is a specific reason why I started with the first
few lines, which are (honestly speaking) heavily inspired from Gladiator. Time
and again, I watch that movie whenever it is telecast on satellite channels. Or
I browse through YouTube to hunt for specific moments from within the movie,
which make me feel of being in a virtual coliseum; fighting to sustain my
identity. I won’t say my identity is under direct threat. But I would say, it
is being challenged from wrong quarters of uncreative mind-sets. On an everyday
basis, I’ve to deal with the constant insult of making some jugheads understand
that creativity is not a fly-by-night process.
The story began somewhere around four months back. Seated in
a glass cabin, facing the reception and cross examined by two men; it was the
same me replying positively. After a brief moment, they demanded that I make a
presentation and show it to them to decide; if I was worth it. After ten years
of being in the creative sphere, such things don’t deter me anymore. I spent a
good sum of one hour or a little more than that to put together a presentation.
One of the men from the odd strongbox of two or three man team sat across the
table and explained how the presentation has to be upmarket to be presented to
the CEO. I complied and made it look more presentable, more appealing and more
promising.
The remark ‘Good Job’ was the first trump card to pull me in.
I was guided to a CEO’s cabin. The darkness within should have been a clear
indication of a nasty path ahead. But I paid no attention. Speaking to the CEO
should have been a pleasant experience. But there was something he said in
Hindi – Humein achey logon ki zaroorat nahi hai. Achcha bankar kya karoge,
HELAAOGE? (We are not in need of nice people. By being nice, are you going to
shake it?) For a moment, I was amused as to who was I speaking to! Is this how
a CEO speaks to a prospective Creative Lead? Is this how you get introduced to
a person of higher repute on your first meet? I still paid no attention. Many
temptations, fake promises and high hope later; I gave in to what they showcased.
Having set their second trap, they succeeded in pulling me into the game.
The game was well planned but with evident loopholes. My
introduction was colder than North Pole. A negative image of a hardworking team
was painted. For the first three months, I didn’t know that there was a fresh
thinking and hardworking copywriter in our team. Fake stories were seeded in as
to how history was created. To be honest, at a place with wrong geographical
thinking; even the immortals can’t create history. The incessant tale of wanting
to change some old habits continued to do the rounds. I continued respecting
everything that came my way. But there was more to come. I soon realized that I
had stepped into a wax museum of illusions. For all the so called creative work
that came our way, there were no proper briefs ever shared. At a point of time
wherein we were talking of Social Media, we were talking of media that we didn’t
understand or bother to evolve with. We were making commitments to clients that
were not even considered for a slide in the PowerPoint presentations, we made. Time started seeping away. Luckily I
established a connection with the same team that was painted as criminal
minded. The more I started working with them, the more I realized about the
body of lies that was roaming around me; nude and ferociously. Every time this
body broke for a smoke, I felt relieved.
The epidemic of late nights came striking hastily. Every
single task was tagged urgent or crucial to sustain the business. Work suddenly
swelled without a reason. Our minds started turning obese with bad ideas. The
clients we started dealing with had their own set of ideas in place. We agreed
to start executing them. Never was the team once consulted about it and neither
me, the Creative Lead was consulted ever. The story continued at a bitter pace.
New characters started jumping in. The walk-ins of new characters fuelled the
already derailed structure of work. We welcomed those who knew nothing about
creative process. This was a new breed. This new breed screamed on whatsapp,
faked on facebook, lied on twitter and ran away with all the credit of good
work. They decorated their eyes with fake tears during moments of our personal
triumph. They patted our backs with filth in their hands. The murk continued.
Briefs stopped coming in. We were called by the clients to be insulted. One man
took the onus to put up a show, which held promises of being a gala flop. This
man is the recent mismanaged man on mission. Every time he held a meeting, his
opening line for that moment would be – I CAN’T TRUST MY TEAM. If he somehow
managed to be in a good mood, he would vomit saying – YOU AS A TEAM HAVE YET
NOT CONVINCED ME TO WIN MY TRUST. If this is how you are supposed to talk
during meetings and boost the confidence, then I think this man never had worked
with a team or known the word – LEADERSHIP. More murk continued. Till a day
arrived when everyone gave up and took the issue to people, whom they thought
will do justice and liberate them from tough times.
Along with others, I too chose to speak in high decibel. From
within, a voice prompted – YOU WILL BE FRAMED AND THE TEAM TOO WILL STAND TO
SUFFER. But then bad habits never die soon. The mutiny continued. I didn’t
speak as a torn individual soul. We spoke as a team and as one soul of many torn
souls brought together. We waited for hope until despair knocked on our doors.
A new story is in the making. The grey characters are having
fun with all the vibrancy around them. Evil has taken over the good. And as
opined by the CEO - Achcha bankar, we are or maybe I am heelaofying (We or I in
particular are shaking it by being nice). But like all bad times, the good
times of Diwali arrived. All the negative moments seemed temporarily erased.
But then Diwali is not celebrated for 365 days. It’s celebrated for just four
precious days. The other 361 days are yet to be lived, survived and fought out.
To announce an ending, Diwali holidays are over. It is high
time to go back to the ruins of apathy, anarchy and anxiety. In
the ruins where evil awaits to insult credibility of being what we are –
truthful. In the ruins the evil awaits to avenge an insult, we had inflicted on
it.
As a sign off, I wish to say
this is not something to be called as frustration. But I’ve spoken the truth
not considering the future prospects of it. Many might not like it. Many might
not understand it. But personally, I feel satisfied to have written something
that I think, I should have written long back. I simply hope the avalanche of
fake hope stops here and now. And for once, stop hiring people to insult them
or their expertise at a fixed monthly wage of peanuts.
-vociferous
PS: Don’t make creative minds commit uncreative crimes to get
your torn egos massaged
