Good news, somewhat - 2

Remember the whole offer from two companies? Well, both of them HAD to get back to me today with their formal offers. And I have made a decision. Former. (Go check my earlier posts if you want to make head or tail out of this.) And some people are pissed by this. I know it's not conventional, to give it a tag; but it'll be different. I hope and I know. 6 months OK? If I fail I'll come back. But I won't. I want to do something different and what's wrong with that? Why must one always take the safer route? What happened to following Frost's poem in real life? Why should it stop with just reading and understanding?

Good news, somewhat

Three people have started following me. But what is surprising is that when I had written a flurry of posts, even my usual followers didn't read. But when I took my hiatus (make that; became lazy) I gained three new followers! *gasp*

I think the universe is trying to tell me something.

Also I have got an internship offer from a company that was the pioneer to search engines but has now gone into oblivion, slightly but is trying to revamp itself (good for you!) and attended an interview at a place I interned before. While the former is an internship, the latter is a full-time job. The former has it's office in a neighboring state and the latter is in Namma Chennai. Former is  new media, latter is print. And so on. But what I do know about the latter is how much they will be paying me, something I don't know about the former.

I have to pick one and it is difficult, or as the Twitter junta put it #tuffmatch. Or not.

Will the ground split into two and make the decision for me?

Oh and speaking of decisions, a certain someone accused me of never having taken a decision.

Why the vacuum cleaner sucks

You've caught me. The title has nothing to do with my post, I just wanted to indulge in some err wordplay, perhaps. You can't blame me you know, its 8.46 pm and I'm at work, persistently (if I may add) for the past 5 days. Including Christmas eve, Christmas and Boxing Day! I'm no Christian, but when the whole world takes off and lazes around, its only fair that I long for one! (Especially when you have a sibling who sleeps tight till 10 am while I trudge off to work). Oh and its a Sunday today. No one I know works on a Sunday! And add to it the sleeplessness of 4 nights in a row - there you have it! One grumpy child. Waiting to get away.

In other news: N is having fun with person-I'm-not-naming-here. Let's call him anon. N and anon are having the best time, I hope it really works out for them :) They make sucha cute couple!

D, my colleague, is pregnant and might take leave only in May end. What a huge sigh of relief! She's one of the most efficient worker and awesome gossip-person and partner-in-spitting-crime. I shall miss her when she is gone. I might leave by May also. Sets me thinking.

T's quiz is not loading. Damn, now how do I kill time at work? Also I've seen it a million times. Just trying to check if I know all the answers every time I view it.

Craving some extra dark chocolate. (Why do all my posts of late contain a reference to chocolate?)

The how-to-be-a-journalist handbook

Lesson 1: Learn to like coffee and tea. This was said by my friend Nandita Raman in one of her posts. I would like to rephrase it quite differently. You must learn to like the liquid that they pass of as coffee/tea. While tea becomes 10x sweeter, coffee on the other hand metamorphosizes into a muddy, dirty concoction that can turn poisonous if you don't drink it immediately.  

Lesson 2: Always, always, ALWAYS carry a notebook (notepad, paper etc) and a writing instrument. Make sure it writes though. You obviously don't want to be borrowing it from the person you are meeting and thus embarrassing yourself in the process (these things happen, yes)

Lesson 3: Do your research. Even if it involves Facebooking the person or searching through his Linkedin profile to unearth depths of unwanted information. In other words, stalk. Yes, I mean it in a good way.

(P.S. Questions on 'What do I do if his/her FB profile is blocked' will not be entertained here. Wait for a separate FAQ page on that one).

Lesson 4: (a) Have quite a good appetite. By good of course I mean BIG. 'Cause as a journo you're entitled to attend events at 5 star hotels and eat the free food they pass out. The average is about 2 events/week, if not more. 

(b) Also brag about how you get to attend these cool events (mention the food of course!) till the people listening  drool their saliva away and beg you to please take them. Promise that you will. Later if you don't (which will most probably happen) always use the I-don't-think-my-editor-will-approve reason, or the It-won't-look-professional one. Or the quintessential Oh-I-totally-forgot. Works every time!

Lesson 5: (a) Keep Google open. Whether you use it or not, is secondary. Always pays to have it open, you can check for sources if not for anything else. If all fails please open any one of those networking sites and network! 

(b) Side-la keep your newspaper/magazine's site also open. When editor/colleague passes by swiftly but deftly open the news site. This doesn't require much practice. 

Lesson 6: Post important links on important happenings in the world, whether you find it important or not. Comment something on it. Preferably something intellectual. 

This post reflects the author's personal views and does not mean to harm or hurt any single person. If you find it offensive, just quit reading it, seriously.  

If you have any comments or suggestions or any more points to add feel free to write in to me at pseudojourno@im-not-a-journalist.com

As good as it gets

It's been almost 2 weeks since I started working, and I'm feeling dreary already. The routine has got to me. And to top it all, my computer refuses to work. And I have to shuttle from Nungambakkam to Guindy, 6 days a week. By the time I'm home, I'm bushed. 

But on the other hand it keeps me occupied. From 8 to 8, round the clock. I've learnt a good lot about commerce and economics (still no expert on the subject, though) Covering events are part of the routine. Which means: Good food at almost every event. Especially when the invite mentions Taj, Le Royal Meridien etc.

Almost quit watching television. For starters I have no time and even if I do, the TV is hogged by dad/sister/grandparents. Meh. And even if I do watch I'm honestly getting tired of watching news. Who wants to watch Arnab-in-your-face-shouting-with-papers-in-his-hand when you're home from a tiring schedule? Or Sagarika and her nonsensical questions and self-made replies. Really. I'd rather watch some cooking shows and ease off, or some football. 

Bottom line is: I'm glad I have something to do. Whether it's travelling round the city or sitting at office (and goofing around) life's going good :)