20 March, 2007

Unemployed

In 2001 when I took up a job at Wisden, I told myself that this would be the last job of my life, I’d become a full-time writer after this. Well, that gig lasted a bit longer than I’d expected, as Wisden bought Cricinfo and I was its managing editor for a while in India, but I finally managed to break loose late last year. Immense relief came. Vast quantities of freedom unleashed itself upon me.

This does present a problem, though. Every once in a while people ask me what I do, and will not be satisfied with any answer I give. If I say I’m a blogger, they look at me as if I’m mad. If I say I’m a writer, they look at me as if I’m crazy. If I say I make crosswords for a living, they check my temperature, their clammy palm trembling on my sensuous forehead.

So I simply say I’m unemployed, and smile widely. I tried this at a quiz at NMIMS a few days ago (report here), when the finalists were announced. It was an open quiz, and all the other teams were from corporations or colleges. When our turn came to introduce ourselves, the quizmaster, a Kolkata veteran named Gautam Ghosh (not the blogger), asked me where we were from.

“We’re from nowhere,” I said. “At least I’m not. I’m unemployed.”

Mr Ghosh’s mouth fell open. “You are what?” he asked, his voice tinged with obvious concern.

"Unemployed,” I said. “I’m unemployed.” I smiled at him.

“You mean you’re a freelancer,” he asked. Now, this was as true as my being unemployed, but I had decided on my status for the day, and I was going to stick to it.

“No,” I said. “I’m unemployed. My quiz partner, however, works in a company.”

Immense relief flooded across Mr Ghosh’s face. But all evening he kept looking at me with feeling, and I don’t suspect our squandering an early lead was the reason for that.

* * * * *

Having said that, I find myself far busier these days than ever before, constantly falling behind on work. I have hundreds of emails piling up in my inbox, and the guilt at being unable to answer them gnaws at me. Working in an office at least regiments your time. On your own, you have to do it all by yourself. Work expands to fill the day, as Parkinson’s Law predicts. And the worst part is that loads of people assume that as you work from home, you have lots of free time. Pah.