Shatrujeet

When I look back at my life I can’t believe where I was a decade ago and where I am today. The two lives couldn’t have been more different, and that is only because ten years ago, I decided I had had enough of a nine-to-nine corporate job. I wanted to pursue my own writing ambitions, even if it meant leaving behind the structured security of my corporate life.

I got into the writing business in the mid-90s by writing ad copies, but it was my transition into business journalism in 1998 which fashioned me into a writer of some merit. I loved journalism passionately for close to ten long years. But sometime in 2008, I began to grow tired of the profession. I was learning nothing new, I had stopped enjoying going to work, and I sensed I had hit a plateau. Of course, I was doing great career-wise- I was already the editor of ET’s business broadsheet Brand Equity, and my prospects as a young editor at The Economic Times were very bright. But that was not the sort of fulfilling career I had in mind.

I wanted to do something new. And that something new was getting into writing fiction.he switch into freelancing was facilitated by the fact that a Mumbai-based content creation company was keen on hiring me as a consultant for television shows. So in 2009, I bid journalism (and a steady income) goodbye. That was my first mistake. My second mistake was leaving the content creation company within a few months to write my first novel, The Karachi Deception.

I call them mistakes because the next two years were financially the hardest for me. My wife was earning well, but our income had reduced to half. And I learnt that publishing books does not pay the bills unless you are a No. 1 bestseller like Chetan Bhagat. Which I was not.

It took three years for people to start noticing my books. But even then, royalties from books couldn’t sustain a lifestyle. Fortunately though, a couple of freelancing opportunities to work on film scripts and screenplays came my way, and I grabbed them with both hands. These gave me the money I needed and exposed me to the craft of writing for the audio-visual medium. And as I brought out more books, I began acquiring more and more readers and creating a loyal base. And since 2016, I have been working as a freelancer with two or three of the best production houses in Mumbai- writing a feature film and a web series for one, while adapting two books into web shows for another. Freelancing has been a slow, uphill grind, but I am finally making the kind of money that keeps me and my family comfortable – while doing the kind of stuff that makes me happy.

Most days, when I am sitting and having my morning cup of chai, I look out of my window and see office-goers rushing out of their homes and getting into their cars, already late and frowning and cursing and honking… and I remember how I was part of that same race, desperate to clock another day to bring home another dollar. I realized that my life would have taken a different turn had I stayed the corporate course. I would have been a senior editor at one or the other of the major newspapers, chained to a cubicle with a fancy designation, but also making good money and enjoying the clout that comes with the press card. Would that have been bad? I don’t think so. Not if that’s what I had wanted. But what I genuinely wanted was the freedom to wake up to the possibility of doing something new every day, writing pieces which pleased me.

This freedom that comes with freelance is hard-earned. This freedom is also filled with uncertainty, where the next paycheck could come in a week or in a couple of months… or never. But that is the thrill of this ride called freelance life.

I love my Good Work, and I love my Good Life even more.