Sanjay Shukla

I woke up gasping for breath. It was 4am. The nightmare had startled me. I stealthily moved past my wife, Gayathri and son Harsh because it was too early in the day. After slowly sipping a glass cool water from the ‘matka’ (earthen pot), a sense of normalcy and mental equilibrium were restored.

As the black-eyed Sr. Content/Copy Writer of a leading Hospital Group of India, I was tipped to be the next big communications guy in the corporate world. But on this particular morning, fear took over my sense of sanity, my creativity having gone kaput. I failed to understand how I was unable write a script for a promotional video campaign I was working on.

I recalled, with a heavy heart, the sequence of events from the previous evening. My boss had called me and exhorted, “Listen, Sanjay, we are making a promotional video on preventive health for social media. I want a brilliant copy… Not some thrash. Remember, YOU ARE NOT writing for a nursing home. You are writing for one of the top healthcare brands of the world

Returning to my seat, I whacked my brains but fell short of my own expectations. Better counsel saw me leave for home. I went in vain to the bookstore to get my hands on some of the recent best-sellers. However, I failed to get any sleep. Now sipping cool ‘matka’ water, I wondered if Peter’s Principles were staring me in the face. Have I reached a saturation point? I shuddered at the thought.

Around 6:30 am, Gayathri brought him a cup of coffee and went to get ready for the day’s chores. Harsh breezed in with a “good morning pappa!  I have to rush to have a bath. Can you help me with my school bag and books?”  But there was no respite for my early morning blues.

Later, while having yet another cup of coffee by a spot in the balcony, my eyes fell on a pair of Pigeons (a grey and a white one) on the top of the roof top of the other side of my apartments, just yonder. They were oblivious of my presence, engaged as they were in a battle of one-upmanship, literally.

A piece of cloth was dangling on the edge of the roof top, stuck to a bamboo stick. Each was trying to outwit the other to get hold of the tattered piece. I was so absorbed in the amazing Tom and Jerry-inspired melodrama that for some time trivia like my assignments and deadlines were far from my mind.

“Would they succeed in fulfilling the mission they have embarked upon? Would they continue undaunted or give up after a few attempts?” I wondered.

The pigeons were in no mood to give up, though. They were apparently made of sterner stuff. After a mutual compromise of sorts, the grey pigeon made way for his `senior’ to try its hand.

With no competition, the rejuvenated pigeon meticulously cut a lining and Eureka, it took the shred to another rooftop and placed it at a vantage position. Thus, assured of its conquest’s safety, it came back again and again, eventually shifting the entire cloth to the newfound haven.

The sense of déjà vu, the pronto celebration after the methodical and diligent attempts, the never-say-die spirit they embodied came as an instantaneous wake-up call to me.

Inspired by the pigeons’ dogmatic fortitude to overcome impossible odds, I was almost at once transformed. The dauntless exuberance exemplified by the pigeons spurred him on to a new high.

Bolstered thus, I dashed off to my office and began thinking of a suitable script for the promotional video. My energy was bubbling and my mind was on top gear. The flow of thoughts and words were amazingly crisp.

Lo presto! The good old Sanjay was back. Hitting peak form, I came up with a script that was not only good but fetched record ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ on social media for the company.

I dedicated the success to those two pigeons. They taught me a lesson that no institute, no management guru had ever imparted. It was the need to rekindle creativity while braving all odds at the hour of reckoning.