EPISODE 02: “TO BE OR NOT TO BE... BUT TO BE!”

Hey! I know last time I said, I will be back in a bit... it was quite a big bit! Inherent laziness... that’s all that there is to it! And don’t blame it on me... blame it on my genes! I mean really, can you seriously blame me for being lazy; me, who chose sleep over coming into this world?? (You know what happened in ep1!)

Anyways, what’s done is done. So here I am staring blankly at a blank page thinking what to write?

You see what happened here? Just to get the ball rolling, I used a technique, which everyone in television is aware of... RECAP!

See I can almost hear that... “Ah... Oh yeah!” in your heads! And I can also see that sly smile which you are trying to hide so unsuccessfully! I am telling you... I am good!

Anyways, ok here’s something to kick your brains and jump-start those memory glands (read: memory... and nothing else!!!)... This question is to all the non-teenagers like myself and to all those who wish they were as young as me...

When was the first time that you knew you wanted to be in the profession you are in?

And I rephrase it for all the wannabe non-teenagers who are stepping out of the so-called educational institutions!
(I would like to believe that more than 5 people read my blog!!)

What is the profession that attracts you the most?!

Actually the non-teenagers can answer this as well... it should be fun!

I know all your replies will come... and most of you guys will not even reply coz lets face it... I am not the only lazy one!

Anyways, that’s your call... but I am going to put down my answer...

I will answer the second one first... kya karoon media se hoon na... seedhi baat karni nahi aati!

Well looking at the current scenario... any job looks damn attractive... I mean whether it’s a chef, an artiste, an actor, a govt. employee... I mean I keep joking that I am going to join a call center... but believe you me, it’s a god damn attractive option!

But I don’t think I will be happy doing anything else other than what I do now...

Honestly, I don’t remember when it was... but I always knew I was going to be in media.

My mom was doing her PhD when I started to stand on my own two feet... I mean literally! I was a year old! Dad used to be busy with work, so my responsibility was given to two individuals who besides being crazily in love with me... had the other thing which was a necessary for the job... TIME!

One was a freelancer, “in-between-job types” (now we all know what that is!! It was the same back then too!) and the other had just retired and was into creative writing! (Unlike the former... this actually was creditable then!)  

So enter... My Mavshi (mom’s sister) who was a JJ Institute’s art student and assisting Sai Paranjpe at that time... and my grandfather (mom’s dad) who was a playwright and used to pen screenplays and dialogues for the Marathi film industry, which believe it or not was witnessing silver and golden jubilee films!

So being in that environment, and my mom doing her PhD in Marathi Theatre, and my mama (mom’s brother) studying at FTII in Pune, there was really no doubt where I was going to land.

Whether it was going for theatre rehearsals with my mom in NCPA or whether being a silent spectator to the discussions that used to happen in the house between my mavshi and her friend (who later became her husband) and their friends... there was definitely an inclination and a strong one towards media as opposed to anything. And then my grand father hit the nail on the head; he took me one day on a shoot... I think that and the many other occasions, which followed kind of, did the damage that was required to get into media!

My grandfather, knowingly or unknowingly (now I will never know that) got me introduced to the greatest love of my life (at that time of course!)... Lights-Camera-Action!

So since that age, I wanted to be a part of that light-camera-action field. And I think my parents also knew it, and they never ever tried to change my mind. I was always given the right to choose! And from then on it was immaterial what stream I took to graduate... coz I knew where I was heading!

So although there was a strong influence around me of media in form of my mom, mavshi and mama, the one-person single handedly responsible for making me fall in love with media... is Anna (my grandfather). And come to think of it... it was because of media that I met Gee... so yeah, I can say he is the man who scripted my love story.

He is also a man responsible for a lot of other things like introducing me to alcohol etc! But all about that and how I gave up drinking at the age of six... LATER!

Till date, and its not like its going to change, but my greatest regrets is that he never got to meet Gee and how I could not splurge my first media salary on him!