What’s up, lazy peeps!! As the Bollywood industry is on a total lockdown (A decision was taken by the Screenwriter association Producer’s association and Artist unions.) till 31st March, does it feel like the same Tuesday needed some getting used to? For me, it feels like the surprise summer vacation I never knew I could have.
So I was sitting on my lazy pad (read bed- I’m not Ambani’s son) on a Tuesday work from home. So naturally who the hell works? (Totally treating it like our summer vacation projects.) So as is the ritual my phone was by my side and in front of me was a packet of chips (Popcorns are not my thing) and I thought “Aj kuch toofani karte hain” and I turned my Netflix off and went down the old welcoming lanes of YouTube (Remember the memories we had before amazon and Netflix stole it from us?). As soon as I searched C on the youtube search tab, I realized We as a race might have crossed the boundaries of sanity long back.
I searched up Corona on youtube and the search results were god damn insane!! The first was CORONA STAND UP!! Followed by coronavirus card b remix!! Then came corona song TIK TOK REMIX!! And of course, how the hell could we forget the “CRAZY” ones who live off other’s content. Yup, you sure guessed that one right. The REACTION CHANNEL!! We have people taking patient reactions on CORONA!! FYI the coronavirus news was the last suggestion on the search bar.
So, “Wahi reet humari purani..” I started binging the content. It was 1 in the afternoon I entered the black hole of content and by the time I looked upon the watch the time was 4 o’clock. I looked back at my screen and the video playing was titled “Gaumutra effects on corona” with go corona go playing in the background. I knew I was gonna get fired anyway now I could at least blame the internet for the fall of my career when I’ll be sitting on the footpath with a bottle of narangi in my hands.
With that future totally planned in my mind, I called up my friends from the industry (I actually didn’t think I’d have anything better to do.) to check how well they remember their college days. (Zero earning and burnt out savings, ah memories).
First I called Mr. Rajveer (Actor Razi and Uri the surgical attack fame). I expected to walk into a wide hole of depression. Closed gyms, No work, I expected him to be sitting and shivering in a corner of his house.
To my surprise, his hello was as chirpy as a sparrow. I was pleasantly surprised, we talked for a while and he made me realize that maybe, we are not the ones taking the hardest fall, there are our brothers and sisters who work on a daily wage system. They are the ones facing the worst blows of this pandemic. This actually made sense. Then we talked for a while about the ongoings of our seemingly standstill daily lives. He explained how we could use this time to virtually connect with people who are creating some mind-blowing content. Maybe we could take some inspiration or maybe we could virtually plan some collaboration when the pandemic comes under control. He made me realize, with a positive frame of mind, we can be really productive at home as well.
Well on that refreshing note, We ended the call and I called Mr. Imran Shahid (Independent director and content creator). I was welcomed by a busy tune at first but he called me back in 5 minutes. Even his hello was as chirpy as Rajveer’s, interesting, I thought. I asked him about the busy tune and he told me that he was currently working on a campaign by the name “HOPE”. Where he was planning to distribute ration to the homes of fraternity people who were daily wage earners ( Lightman, Spotboys, etc.). Pretty inspiring to earn karma points amidst this standstill environment. We talked for about 15 minutes where he made me realized the importance of taking baby steps.
By the end of the day, I was standing with a rather changed perspective. These few industries peep made me realize one thing for sure. It is not the situation that dictates our actions, but the choices we make do. I’d like to end this article on Ajay sir’s words “ The film industry will bounce back and the damage will remain just like a scar”. Hoping and praying that the company doesn’t fire me for not doing anything on Saturday.
Myopian signing off…
