Have a thought? Draw it out. Have a doubt? Throw it out. With eclectic colours adorning a spacious environment, where the mind is charged with boundless energy and arrogance, creativity and curiosity just got a new address! City Spidey, your friendly neighbourhood app, has moved out of its incubator and into the sanguine corridors of Sector 2 in Noida! Does the change of environment have any bearing on the little app that delivers hyperlocal news and micro-local services? Here's what the movers and shakers of this applet have to say:
S Srinivasan is the man who is as much feared for his authoritative no-nonsense regime at work as he is admired by the very same people for his inexhaustible reservoir of stories from the world of journalism. He has launched several news channels and has been at the helm of affairs in most national dailies. Srinivasan is an unusual Tam-Brahm and a meticulous columnist, and popularly known in the industry as Srini!
Srini says office hunting can be as traumatic as house hunting. He adds, “After visiting scores of buildings we zeroed on to this and it was love at first sight. The interiors, techno in some sense, are almost as if made to order… to house a buzzing start-up. A bow-shaped conference table, an informal white desk that could lower the nerd quotient of the developers, spacious desks in the newsroom, a motorised height-adjustable standing desk and voila loos have energy saving sensors!”
So far so good! Alas, he doesn’t stop at that. “The best part is journalists with bloated egos need not look afar for a halo...there is one hanging on top of each workstation. What about office chemistry? Uh...mmm I am waiting for a news break!”
Even if you just found all your arduously built credentials of international repute oh-so-effortlessly put up on the crucifix, you do not mess with Srini. Why? I forgot to mention, he is the Managing Director of City Spidey! And you certainly do not mess with him at the end of the month, if you value your salary.
The office, before the crowd starts milling in...
The more accommodating and less harmful Nishiraj A Baruah is a welcome break from the high command. Says Nishiraj A Baruah, our Executive Editor (output), "Loving the vibes. Love the greens - the colour scheme I mean, which I hope to supplement with actual green potted plants. Got a lovely corner with enough natural light to make me abandon a dark-tinted glass cabin. Also like the industrial look of the ceiling and the space-age flying saucer LED lights. A space that's grandly aloof and yet very accessible."
The deceptively quiet Nishiraj draws upon metaphors from Star Trek and suddenly finds a mouthful to describe his new office! And his team of verbose editors are suitably dazzled by those flying saucer lights that delight their boss. Some of them turn economical with their words while others go on overdrive.
Don't go by his serious demeanour. He is one fun guy, with some of the wildest experiences ever!
Abid Barlaskar is a young reporter and he says, "Our new place is cool. It's green, it's clean, and most importantly, it's open!" A quiet Ujjaini Dasgupta says, “Yo! That's what our new office says. Look up, it's there in our lights. Look around, it's there in the reflections. It's like a high-five from a close friend.” Tathagata sits close to Ujjaini and that perhaps explains the influence. He says, “What's hipper than an office with a bare industrial ceiling, stark white workstations with a limo's leg space and quirky hanging lights that spell 'Yo'?
Puja Mahaldar’s decibel levels and the speed at which she speaks can put Sunset Boulevard on fire! Ask her how she feels in her new office and she takes you by surprise again, this time by a poignant realisation. “I sat down for a while and thought what my favourite colour is. Simple ones like red, pink, blue or the stylish ones like turquoise, mauve or tangerine? A simple blissful smile on my face made me realise that it’s the colour of life that I love the most.”
Puja Mahaldar's recipe for a cool head: Lemon, mint and cucumber-infused water
This is the point where I scream in my head “BLUE BLISTERING BARNACLES AND THUNDERING TYPHOONS!”
Akhilesh Pandey is a senior reporter who is most remotely stationed from the base. Several months of reporting on residents’ woes in Dwarka has taken a huge toll on his ability to make sense. Hey come on! Don't give that look like you have never wished people could loosen up a little. This serious reporter now speaks a different language! He says, "The office is full of positivity. I like its ambience and designs. It inspires me to think a bit differently, to add emotion and philosophy to my work."
As for me, I have abandoned my misleading corporate tall back-rested chair and decided to stay grounded. Quite literally! Moved the chair to the edge of the cubicle, threw a few cushions around on the floor and made a little library where the most prominent book is What I Know For Sure.
I sip my tea and pretend to form innovative strategies to reach out to newer neighborhoods while I actually write this piece!
Abid Hussain Barlaskar unleashes the crazy
