“This is ridiculous!” He muttered to himself as Joy took long steps and walked faster towards the main office. He was 5 minutes late.

The split AC of the office didn’t help much, as beads of perspiration formed on his forehead.

 “Is it done?” Praful asked from his seat as he passed him by.

“Hmm…” he nodded. He didn’t bother chatting and walked faster.

 He entered his boss’s plush, mahogany, carpeted office.

 The place always gave him a sense of power and accomplishment. But today, it made him extremely nervous. His boss was late but he was thankful for the delay. It would give him some time to calm himself. It was an important meeting. He stood in the middle of the empty room and hoped everything would go well.

 Couple of minutes later, his boss Swaraj entered the cabin in a hurried pace. Looking flustered he nodded impatiently to him and sat in his chair.

 “I hope this time there are no silly errors”, he asked impatiently.

 Clutching his folder tightly, Joy nodded.

“Then what are you waiting for?” He said stretching his arms towards him.

 Slowly but confidently Joy handed him the file.

 For the next 10 minutes he wasn’t sure of what Swaraj was thinking while looking at his concepts. His face was devoid of any expression and he did not look up once.

 He waited.

 After, what seemed like eternity he closed the file and gave him a long, hard yet blank look.

 “This is what you call a concept for a car? We are here to sell the product and not make a joke out of our client! What were you thinking? This is absolute crap and sub-standard work!”

 The words cut him like a knife.  Joy felt his knees shaking. As his boss continued to berate his work, Joy suddenly felt very dizzy.

 All he could think of were the sleepless nights he had put into designing those concepts, resulting in the lack of having  a life for the past 3 weeks. He could not even attend his cousins wedding or his nephew’s seventh birthday party.  But it did not matter anymore. The confidence he felt about his work sometime back was replaced by a feeling of sheer humiliation and incompetence.

 “Listen Joy. You have been in this agency for 5 years now and I have to say your work really surprises me. Sometimes it’s out of the world and sometimes I don’t have a clue of what you trying to say!”

 These words suddenly brought Joy back to the present and he realized that his boss his still talking.

 “I am not here to train you. Since we are investing in you, we need to get something back. Start taking copywriting seriously and think in a way that can appeal to the client but not  to you only. We are here to sell a product but I don’t know how that can happen with the type of concepts you come up with”!

 With those words he threw the folder on the table and picked up his mobile which was ringing for a couple of seconds.

 Joy realized that it was time for him to get up and leave, but he just kept sitting there, trying very hard to gather his thoughts for couple of minutes.

 His ideas were just thrashed.

 Slowly he picked up the file from the table, took a deep breath and walked out of the cabin.

 His boss was still on the phone and did not even notice him leaving.

 He entered his small, suffocating cubicle and sat down with a thump on the chair. Feeling depressed beyond words, he looked at the layouts  spread in front of him.

 “Where did I go wrong”? He wondered.

 He remembered the time when he was fresh out of college. With majors in literature, and a very uneventful college life, Joy had confidently decided that his days of formal education were finally over.

 Full of life. Full of vigor. He was ready. Ready to face life head on. Ready to begin his life.

Soon after, he had taken up a job in a small advertising agency as a trainee for zero salary. From serving coffee to seniors to photocopying papers, he did everything, and did not mind. He was observing everything and it was there that he dabbled a bit into copywriting, and had gotten hooked. The whole concept of putting together a few words to sell a product seemed fascinating to him. He knew this is what he wanted to do.

 “You want coffee?”

 Joy was back to reality. He looked up and saw Naira holding a coffee mug and munching on a doughnut.

 “No thanks. Not in the mood” He smiled weakly.

 “Ok sweetie. But remind me later. I have to tell you some latest gossip”.

 Naira winked playfully and disappeared. Joy could not help but smile. She was always so perky and happy. Considering the crazy amount of time she spent in office as a client servicing executive, she was probably one of the saner ones in office.

 He looked at his watch. Already 4.30pm. But he was in no mood to do anything.

 “Maybe I will just go home and sleep for a couple of days”, he thought dejectedly.

 He leaned back on his chair and closed his eyes.

 “What happened to me?”, he thought.  I had plans for a life. I wanted to do some good work, travel the world, be surprised, face life, and go bungee jumping. Just feel alive. But now all I want to do is to crawl under a rock and die”.

 He wasn’t sure whether he liked copywriting anymore. He wasn’t sure what he liked anymore. Because of his crazy work life - due to a deadline sometimes he often slept in office itself, over the years slowly he had lost contact with his old friends, acquaintances and even his family. It is no surprise that his fiancée broke up with him last year. Love life had never gotten a chance. His life has become one big deadline.

 His eyes still closed he realized for the first time that his life has become the only thing he didn’t want it to be. Stagnant.

 “Is it worth it?”, he asked  himself.

 He was still in a gloomy mood when he suddenly remembered about the meeting that was announced in the morning.

 He got up with a heavy heart and slowly walked towards the conference room.

 “I wonder what this is about” Naira whispered to him as she whizzed by him. 

 To Joy’s surprise, the room was packed. Everyone in the office was present.                 

 “Thank you all for coming”, Swaraj began.

 “Now, the reason for this meeting is that the very important Rs.18 crore account we pitched for last month, Apex air-conditions, has finally made a decision and they have chosen our agency to handle their account”.

An excited applause went through the crowd.

 “As you all must know that this is a very crucial account for us. All of us have worked very hard the past two months to make this happen….”

 “But…”, he continued. “I must give due credit to the person responsible for this. It was Joy’s brilliant concept that they found unique. I must admit that I wasn’t too much in favor if it.” He gave out a short laugh and the whole office clapped lightly.

Joy, taken aback, looked at Swaraj and smiled.

“I want to you to be the Creative Supervisor for this account Joy”, Swaraj told him and made sure everybody in the room heard him say. Afterall, it is a big thing. The Creative Supervisor himself is offering a copywriter not just an account, but the biggest one for this agency so far. That too, in front of the whole office. It is an opportunity of a lifetime.

Joy still silent realized that this was the opportunity he has been waiting for. After this day and after he says a yes, all his sacrifices, his broken relationships, his heartaches will be worth it. This is his chance to validate his life. He just had to grab it now.

Joy looked at his boss of three years.

 “Thank you for the offer Swaraj but I am resigning today”.

 As a shocked whisper went around the crowd.  Joy walked upto Swaraj. His face could barely contain the emotions of anger and confusion.

 “I am grateful that you think I am worthy of such a big responsibility, but I have some different plans for my life”.

 Joy walked out of the office smiling, thinking where he would go for bungee jumping.

 

Note: This story was published earlier in this page but had to be deleted due to a technical hitch.