— by Nivedita Basu
When I hit publish on my last blog post, I assumed I was gently throwing a stone into a quiet pond.
Turns out, I cracked open a damn dam.
DMs. Texts. Comments. Long-forgotten numbers lighting up my screen. Everyone—from interns who once fetched coffee to CXOs currently sipping it in boardrooms—was suddenly resonating with the thought:
“Am I even in media anymore… or just orbiting around the idea of it?”
Apparently, I wasn’t alone in my semi-public meltdown about media jobs, hiring absurdities, or the Kafkaesque process of trying to re-enter an industry you’ve already helped build.
In the last few weeks, I’ve been bumping into producers who’ve become podcasters, actors now dabbling in tarot reading (yes, really), and writers turning restaurateurs (hi). And they all whispered the same thing:
> “Yaar, I also don’t know what’s going on anymore.”
And then there are those who’ve left quietly.
People who packed up and moved out of Bombay—not for a sabbatical but because the pressure, the rent, and the performative hustle stopped making sense.
Some have gone back to their hometowns and are now thriving. One started a homegrown healthcare business. Another launched her own beauty label. No fancy launches. No LinkedIn manifestos. Just peace of mind and a better bank balance.
So let’s be real—when every second person is starting a YouTube channel, building a production company from their bedroom, or launching an OTT platform with exactly three shows and infinite ambition… you know something’s shifted.
We’re no longer waiting for doors to open.
We’re building sneaky little side doors, Instagram Lives, blogs (some even called what’s your calling), and cozy cafés to survive this creative purge.
So no, this isn’t a rant anymore. This is a roll call.
If you’ve felt sidelined, overlooked, “too senior” or “too TV,” know this—there’s an entire underground network of us. Rewriting what ‘media’ even means now.
It’s not the end. It’s the intermission.
Grab your popcorn. Or your podcast mic. Or your tarot cards.
Just don’t sit quiet.
And if this feels familiar, you might just enjoy a few other stories I’ve been collecting quietly over at whatsyourcallingg.in.
