What is your religion and what is your caste?
I am a Hindu by birth. I am Bengali and I belong to a scheduled caste which is considered a lower caste in India.
Are you married and do you have children?
I am married and I have one daughter.
Where are you from and how long have you been in Delhi?
I am from, Shillong in Meghalaya which is in northeast India and I came to Delhi in 2003. And after two years I went to Bombay and then I came back in 2007 and now its been almost 11 years that I am here.
Why did you come here?
I did a media course in mass communication. I passed in 2003 and back then all the news channels were based out of Delhi. So it made sense for me to move out of Shillong and come to Delhi to look for a job
Did you have any friends or family here when you arrived in Delhi?
I had friends from Shillong who had already moved to Delhi and some of them were studying here. I had a friend who was working in a news channel and through him I got some help, I got a place to stay. I was staying with them and, uh, he of course helped me to get my first job. It was due to his reference that I could get my first job.
What kind of work do you do?
I work as a creative director in this digital publication called -------- . It's an amalgamation of journalist and a video producer, where we come up with interesting video ideas which could go viral on digital media. And we produce those kinds of videos.
How much is your salary?
I get about 2.5 lakhs a month.
Is it enough to cover your needs?
I really think it's enough because it's a substantial amount of money in the context of India. When I came to Delhi in 2003, I came with just 10,000 rupees in my pocket. From there to here it's been great, yeah.
Do you send money back to your family?
My mother is now settled in Assam. My dad used to work in Shillong. So that's why I did all my education back in Shillong. But then, after retirement, he moved back to Assam, so now it's only my mom. And since my mom keeps getting my dad's pension, I don't really need to send her any money.
Have you ever done this kind of work before, and what other kinds of jobs have you had?
I started my career in visual media, primarily in television as a producer and a journalist. So until about 2015, I was in visual media, news channels primarily. In 2015, I made a transition to digital media and now I am also doing videos. Earlier it was for television. Now it is primarily for [the] mobile screen, that's all.
Can you describe your work day?
Yeah, uh, normally I am at work by about 10 in the morning and we straight away go into the editorial meeting which lasts for about an hour, where we plan out the whole day, what kinds of news stories we'll feature, stories we'll do, the videos we'll do. And then after I get up from the meeting I'll go and see – there are about 12 people working under me – I'll see how they are doing, what kind of edits are going on. People will approach me for cameras for doing shoots and all so I have plan all those out. Since we have a lot of really young staff here, a lot of people come to me to plan out their stories, so we brainstorm on the shooting scripts, treatments, structures. By about 7-7:30pm, I try to go home. It's about 15 kilometers from the office to my home, but since it's a big, wide road, it takes me about 20 minutes to reach home.
What do you think about while working?
This is the kind of work which I always wanted to do, so I'm really passionate about my work and I really enjoy my work. I think for most of my career I really enjoyed my work and it never felt like work or a means to earn a living. The good thing is that I get to earn a living because of this. It's great, but I really enjoy my work and the target is to do something which – at the end of the day, when a video is put out – if it is appreciated critically, if it gets good views, that sort of gives me a good satisfaction and happiness.
What is your ideal job?
I think I am currently doing my ideal job but I would definitely love to spend a bit more time with my family. Maybe a little bit less work would be great. But I think I am already doing my ideal job.
What do you think of the lifestyle in Delhi?
I come from Shillong, where the lifestyle is, I come from a very middle class family where earnings are limited and the whole lifestyle in Shillong is very laid back. In the eighties, very few families even owned a car, or a television set. So coming from there and coming to Delhi and today I have a home of my own, I own two cars, so I think I have done quite well. It's quite expensive no doubt, but I've lived in Bombay [and] compared to that it's much more affordable. You know in Bombay things are expensive but the quality of life is not there. In Delhi, at least there's a little bit of quality of life, you've got good roads, the public transport system is decent, my only wish is that people in Delhi could have been a little bit better, you know?
Do you ever experience any discrimination in Delhi?
I personally have never experienced anything, because I think I can speak good Hindi, so that has really saved me, but I know for sure that people from the northeast of India who look different from the North Indians who live in Delhi, they have often been discriminated against for how they look, the kind of food habits they have, the kind of dress they wear. Because there's a lack of information, the people in Delhi don't know much about these people who are coming from the northeast. A lot of these people don't even know that these people come from a different part of India. They think they are from Nepal or China. But I suppose I haven't faced it because I don't look like a person who comes from the northeast.
Will you one day go back to your hometown?
Yeah, that actually is my eventual goal, because what I miss the most is the simple, laid back life back in Shillong and Assam. So that is what my aim is, maybe by the time I am 50 or something like that. I'd love to go back. My aim is to maybe open a sort of training institute or a sort of college where I can train people, train youngsters in media studies and settle there. But I'm not sure my daughter would love to go back, because she was born here and maybe she thinks of herself as a Delhiite, maybe a little more than me.
In your opinion, why do so many people come to Delhi?
People from northeast India [come] because there are definitely not enough jobs there. The education system is decent but there are not enough jobs, be it in the public sector, be it in the private sector.