I got my fourth-first pay cheque today and it is beginning to feel like the movie 50 First Dates, except I am yet to acquire an acute case of amnesia. Each time this first pay cheque comes along,it is supposed to be special. At least this time around it was slightly more than the Rs 400 that the folks at HT Next sent my way some four years back. I don't know why that stopped, coz considering the amount I blabber it might not have been a bad idea to continue with my contributions.
Actually come to think of it, I do remember why I stopped. Initially those guys were so starved of contributors that my article used to be published the very next day after I sent it but with time their pool of contributors grew and their response time to my articles dipped. So even though they did publish the article( i cannot think of any rejected piece) sometimes it used to get printed a week to ten days after I sent it. It kind of killed the spirit of some of the articles. Once I shifted to this side of the Yamuna, the newspaper barons refused to acknowledge my requests for a copy to be sent across and that was that. I made an honourable exit from my stint with the 'print media' !
But whatever said and done there was always the thrill of seeing the name come in print, something I always used to look forward to. A byline is a byline is a byline. It was on the strength of those articles that I went to the chaps at TSM in 07' to get meself an internship. While the internship did not materialise at least I got a job with them now. So maybe the article in HT Next did play a nice bit part in me employment.
Now when I yearn to get a piece printed with my byline, all that I get to do is ghostwrite for my boss and my work appears under his name. Apparently his name is more 'sellable'. Well, who can blame their way of thinking, my boss is a 17 time India international; Of Course his name is more sellable!!
But I shall wait, my time shall come and maybe one day you will see that outdated first name with an unbelievably long surname in print. But till such time all I know is that I have to stop dreaming and prepare meself to get outta bed at 4:30 in the morning tomorrow to start my second month at work.
Ah, life IS a bed of roses..
-X-X-X-X-
Actually come to think of it, I do remember why I stopped. Initially those guys were so starved of contributors that my article used to be published the very next day after I sent it but with time their pool of contributors grew and their response time to my articles dipped. So even though they did publish the article( i cannot think of any rejected piece) sometimes it used to get printed a week to ten days after I sent it. It kind of killed the spirit of some of the articles. Once I shifted to this side of the Yamuna, the newspaper barons refused to acknowledge my requests for a copy to be sent across and that was that. I made an honourable exit from my stint with the 'print media' !
But whatever said and done there was always the thrill of seeing the name come in print, something I always used to look forward to. A byline is a byline is a byline. It was on the strength of those articles that I went to the chaps at TSM in 07' to get meself an internship. While the internship did not materialise at least I got a job with them now. So maybe the article in HT Next did play a nice bit part in me employment.
Now when I yearn to get a piece printed with my byline, all that I get to do is ghostwrite for my boss and my work appears under his name. Apparently his name is more 'sellable'. Well, who can blame their way of thinking, my boss is a 17 time India international; Of Course his name is more sellable!!
But I shall wait, my time shall come and maybe one day you will see that outdated first name with an unbelievably long surname in print. But till such time all I know is that I have to stop dreaming and prepare meself to get outta bed at 4:30 in the morning tomorrow to start my second month at work.
Ah, life IS a bed of roses..
-X-X-X-X-
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