Life does come a full circle!

It’s been a while since I posted last. Since then so many things have happened.

I’ve helped a young lady jump from obscurity to fame/notoriety to near obscurity. I did my two cents worth by posting her link on my Facebook page and let things take their course.

Sorry for showing off, but I did play a hand, albeit a very small one in the young lady’s brief encounter with fame. I guess she also realises that one rant can get her to the top, but the problem is staying there – if she really wants to, that is.

But credit’s due to this young lady. She did in less than a week what I, and I’m sure a million others like me, have been struggling to achieve in two years – and are still nowhere remotely close!

Oh, yes, I also changed jobs. Quit my ‘fancy’ job at the two auto magazines and chose to return to a newspaper, which in its former avatar was the entity from where I started my journalism career –  only now it’s called something else and has new owners.

The nice thing is that it has some  familiar faces and is a much more modern version of the one I left 13 years ago. But it is NOT,  a remnant of the old one in any way.

‘Why am I joining a ‘small’ newspaper’ is what someone asked me. Well, I worked in some ‘big’ places with fancy reputations – both in media and software – and, frankly, considering their formidable reputations, their working left a lot to be desired.

And then, I was missing out on teaching at various places, due to the time constraints in my magazine job. That’s not an issue anymore. Now, it’s really up to me to decide if I want to.

There is something more  happening on the domestic front. But let’s wait for the ink to be put to paper before we celebrate! Touch wood and fingers crossed.

Rude awakening

51 million jobs to go by 2009, screams the Hindustan Times headline today. This is like a broken record isn’t it? What’s a few million between friends? On a more ‘sombre’ note, I’ve just had a rude awakening after my first day on my own blog. I realize that since I am not an anonymous blogger I have to be prepared for emails from people who I name in my blog. I got an irate message from a particular young lady who feels that I should not have been “TELLING THE WHOLE WORLD THAT RECESSION HAS STRUCK” her…” My intention in using her as an example was simply to express my own anguish at her helplessness. She was one of my favourite students and my intention wasn’t to make fun of her loss. While I really don’t know how many people read my blog and how many know her, I guess she justified in expressing her anger at my comment. In hindsight I understand, if tomorrow, I have to tell people in my small world that I don’t have a job, how I would feel. After all, I’m a part of the recession-struck information technology sector, and anything can happen. It’s a mad, mad, mad world.
But away from all the problems that surround us, the picture should make you smile. It appeared in the Orlando Sentinel.

Distress calls

Today’s Hindustan Times said that 50,000 people lost their jobs in one day in the US. DNA went a step ahead and said 85,000! Wow, that’s a lot of people to have staring at pink slips in one day. But what is more interesting is a news item I read a couple of days ago, which said that a US Republican senator wanted the companies who were retrenching staff to first move against HIB visa holders and only then sack locals. I completely agree with that sentiment. Isn’t that what Jet Airways intended to do here? Strangely enough, no one from our government is protesting.

But jokes aside, things are really spiraling out of control aren’t they? A young lady messaged me the other day on chat and said “Sir, I’m doomed. I’ve just been issued a pink slip.” I could sense that she was distraught and frustrated. What use was that Mass Communication degree and her experience if after working for two years she was jobless for no fault of hers?

Another friend in the media called me a few months before and asked me if I could help him get a job in a recently launched newspaper in Delhi. I told him not to because I didn’t think the newspaper would last long. It didn’t. He called the other day to thank me!

Sadly enough this is the reality of our times, and not just in the media business but everywhere you see. When will it end?