By D N Singh
When a journalist jumps into the dips of freelancing, mainly when a beginner, then the struggle for a foot-hold is a mix of frenzy and hope to get a byline.
Before that, a freelancer must be passing through a phase of series rejections of his pieces pitched for newspapers or magazines.
‘Sorry we are not able to use the item and thank you for taking interest in our format. Try next time’ is a proverbial part of the dismay for a poor freelancer who is made to sleep with such rejection slips and brain storming what can he or she do in the next.
All of a sudden the freelancer reaches cloud nine when his byline appears. Bliss and inspiration keep welling for the next at the typewriter till the next byline comes after an inordinate hiatus.
Still the journo never gives up peddling his whims with something new that is usually dubbed as up-beat in essence.
The hide-n-seek goes on for quite a long span till he gets with someone onboard as a trainee or employee. Or a contributor in a consultancy capacity or a retainer. Straddling in between hopes and craze that is often so ephemeral.
The most recent one avenue is the digital formats(Online buzz) where you might fit-in as an editor or a post little above that say Editor-in-Chief. That sounds good for some time when you never feel for a year or two the sand beneath your feet does not slither away.
That too a bit of stop-gap respite that usually do not last more than the hopes to make a living out of.
And that most elusive ascendancy from nothing to a head of a news portal remains hung in its own petard with one’s palpitation remaining high till you listen from the promoter of the organization.
What is that from the boss? That steals your nights’ sleep.
The most painful moment comes like a tormenting abandonment when the message comes from the top ‘ we are closing this or that page so your association with us can be construed as a cease of everything from so and so time’.
The terror of abandonment gets etched in the journo’s mind and health till he gets a similar niche somewhere else. Or just struggles for a toe-hold that also ensures no time frame. The overnight lay off due to an unsure uptick of revenue or recognition.
Meanwhile, his older footholds may have been erased by the recent elusive success forcing him or her to encounter weird dreams on the bed at night.
A dedicated journo who made his climbs through such a circuitous route to be an Editor(sounds good) suddenly discovers his roots in journalism hitting a perilous bottom.
‘The wearer knows where the shoe pinches’ and who knows that better than a person who encounters such an ordeal himself by getting a pink message one fine morning or evening.
The inner silence gets louder and the pain of the overnight rejection weighs on and on whispering to the journo that never ever celebrate such a promontory position in future and go back to the old tracks when you start afresh through Lancing In The Dark (kabhi khushi kabhi gam) some time happiness and pain the next time.
From a position that once turned many faces by virtue of its consequence, back to a world of band-aid palliative is really leads to nerve sciatica.
