"Advertising is a profession of parasites", muttered my father when I first got into it, "making people buy things they don't need", he admonished.
Having grown up with the Nehruvian socialist dream, he epitomized the hardworking Government servant who carried heaps of files back home just so the Postal department, where he worked, didn't lag behind on its delivery-promise to people who relied so heavily on it.
He didn't expect me to take up a Government job, to be sure. He hoped I'd do something that would make me feel worthy because it did good to people. Too bad, selling capitalist dreams to the masses in a just-economically liberated country, didn't qualify for him.
A doctor cures people, an engineer builds things that people use, a scientist ushers the future in quicker, an accountant helps them navigate the maze of numbers which very few people can wrap their heads around,a soldier signs up for sacrificing his life for the country- but advertising? I was sold when they told me it was the most fun I could have with my clothes on. It was about me, not what good I could do for another person.
I spent a decade in Advertising and another in Radio. It had more downs than ups, had me averaging 15 hours a day for the better part of the time I spent in them, and the honest truth is I've had a lot of moments when I've wondered if these were jobs worth burning both ends of the candle for.
I reconciled with it, telling myself that not affecting someone's life with it could actually be liberating - a doctor's mistake could be a patient's death, a lawyer's mistake could incarcerate an innocent and so on, whereas my worst mistake wouldn't result in more than a rich corporation losing some money that it could easily afford to anyway.
And then, one day, along came Dr. Arvind Kasthuri.
Arvind's everything one expects of a doctor, and then some. He heads the community outreach program at the prestigious St.John's Hospital, working tirelessly towards the upliftment of needy senior citizens in villages in and round Bangalore. He also volunteers with the Cause Foundation, doing musical theater, the proceeds of which go to various charities. I'm an unabashed admirer of Arvind's work, both on the stage and off it.
" It must be particularly fulfilling doc, that you have a job that touches so many people", I remarked.
" I feel grateful alright, but you're in the radio business where you touch more people during prime-time than I will in my whole lifetime", he guffawed.
" That's one way to look at it", I nod in agreement, " but there's a certain lack of gravitas in connecting to people through music and entertainment via the mass media vis a vis solving problems and being an enabler the way you are".
"There's a big deal made of this whole 'meaning' to one's job, you know?, he said.
"I get paid for 'making a difference', like you call it, to meet my own needs. This reminds me of a talk I heard sometime back by Dr.Pankaj Chaturvedi. He is an oncologist of repute, and he was addressing a doctors' conference, when he distinguished between the Vedantic concepts of Kriya and Karma"
"Kriya is when you stand to gain by performing an action. Every profession boils down to this, ultimately. Whether it was your dad 'serving' the postal services,you making people smile through radio, me 'serving'the elderly, or a soldier 'serving' the country -all of us got paid for it, with which we bought ourselves our clothes, our houses, our cars, our children's education; as much as we think we are serving others, we are, in reality, serving ourselves."
"Karma, on the other hand, is when we serve expecting nothing in return. A doctor should serve because he wants to eradicate an illness, making himself redundant in the process. A soldier's pride should come not from the badges and labels he wears - you get the drift?"
"And now, I'm thrilled because it isn't just me - everyone has been brought down to being a parasite. Thank you very much, doc!"
I can tell my father this, but who's going to tell a soldier?
" I feel grateful alright, but you're in the radio business where you touch more people during prime-time than I will in my whole lifetime", he guffawed.
" That's one way to look at it", I nod in agreement, " but there's a certain lack of gravitas in connecting to people through music and entertainment via the mass media vis a vis solving problems and being an enabler the way you are".
"There's a big deal made of this whole 'meaning' to one's job, you know?, he said.
"I get paid for 'making a difference', like you call it, to meet my own needs. This reminds me of a talk I heard sometime back by Dr.Pankaj Chaturvedi. He is an oncologist of repute, and he was addressing a doctors' conference, when he distinguished between the Vedantic concepts of Kriya and Karma"
"Kriya is when you stand to gain by performing an action. Every profession boils down to this, ultimately. Whether it was your dad 'serving' the postal services,you making people smile through radio, me 'serving'the elderly, or a soldier 'serving' the country -all of us got paid for it, with which we bought ourselves our clothes, our houses, our cars, our children's education; as much as we think we are serving others, we are, in reality, serving ourselves."
"Karma, on the other hand, is when we serve expecting nothing in return. A doctor should serve because he wants to eradicate an illness, making himself redundant in the process. A soldier's pride should come not from the badges and labels he wears - you get the drift?"
"And now, I'm thrilled because it isn't just me - everyone has been brought down to being a parasite. Thank you very much, doc!"
I can tell my father this, but who's going to tell a soldier?
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