Subhechha Mitra - Sharing a journey

Born here. Brought up too. 18 long years of memories post which I moved out of this quarter, the first that my father was allotted after taking up the job. The place I call HOME. . These quarters were some of the oldest constructions made for the company that my father works for. Our place is a zoo. Actually, all the quarters in the colony are one of each and this makes for one of the hottest topics of discussion for neighbours and office-goers alike. Having stayed away from home for many years now, all the things that are wrong with this place become more visible day by day, as I outstay, unlike my usual visits. More trees than the number of people around. More insects and animals than the family members occupying each house. Squirrels and wolves, peacocks and frogs, snails and pigs, sparrows and chameleons - you name it, we have it! 😀 It's the next level of adventure and fun but comes with a repetitive reminder on how we should've moved out of this tiny place to a bigger one...

The last time I went on a proper vacation was in 2008. 🙅 It was always about first pre-boards, first boards, last pre-boards, last boards, figuring-out-my-life-in-graduation, being-industry-ready-internships, okay-let's-do-this-one-last-time-post-graduation, now-or-never-placements . Actually, I did not even wait for the completion of my course. I got myself a job just after a month into the final semester. It was hard, really really hard. Keeping up with what was happening in classes, preparing for the exams till dawn, taking those exams till noon, resuming office in the second half and E-N-C-O-R-E. By the time I reached home, I would be dead. I remember breaking down one day, on my way back from office, but I did pick myself up and kept going in the hope for better days I was destined to see. I kept going, without a single break.  Once into the job, the most I could afford was to save my handful of vacation leaves for annual home-trips, mostly around Pujo ( Bangali priorities 😃...

It has been quite some time that I have been working in the PR industry. Story-telling and making conversation should be my strongest suits. That is bread and butter for Comms people. However, every time anyone asks me what I do for a living, I find myself in a very awkward position - trying to look for the perfect answer.  Say if you are an engineer, people wouldn't probably get into your KRAs. But, when you say you've studied media/mass communication, first off it is taken for a fact that you're a journalist. I, myself, had come to know of the various other scopes of the stream like advertising, PR, media planning and buying etc. much later while graduating. Now, the moment I say that I work in a Public Relations firm, most people want to know more about it because it looks like a fancy foreign concept that is unheard of. My usual resort is to say that I propagate and sustain the goodwill of my clients. Then they ask me how do you do it and I would say - usually through t...