The K(i)ey!!!

“  ‘Mental’ na ho ke no one can be good in  media…”(no one can be good in media if they are not mad) a  professor of mine had said in his inaugural lecture in college. When I joined Red FM the regional head told me the very same thing “ Mental na hoye bhalo radio presenter howa jay na!!( you can’t be a good radio presenter if you are not mad).

It is indeed ironic (not at all intentional) that my first blog is being published on 10 October, World Mental Health day.

Now going by the words of my seniors if being ‘mental’ is the key to success in our field let us try to analyse the relationship between the words ‘mental’ and ‘creative’.

POSSIBLE RELATIONSHIP 1:  ALL MENTAL PEOPLE ARE CREATIVE.

This statement seems to be untrue. Proof of the same is available in any leading ‘mental’ hospital. The proportion of people who are creative and people who are creatively trying to block their creativity makes it pretty evident that the very definition of ‘creativity’ changes in these situations.

POSSIBLE RELATIONSHIP 2:  ALL CREATIVE PEOPLE ARE MENTAL.

My first brush with a ‘mental’ ‘creative’ person was in college. Most probably this was because of the fact that before college I rarely ever noticed people. That person had asked me a question “ Can you ever be Practical and creative?  To be creative one needs  to imagine. To imagine one has to analyse the numerous possibilities and solve the various permutations and combinations of probabilities and improbabilities. To do that effectively you have to fly away …. far away… away from all that is real and practical towards a land of your own…”

But is it possible for media professionals, people in the sector of communications to stay far away from the real world? Really speaking ..never. Reality is the margin that is preset for us. With that there is a restriction on how mental we can be.

A colleague of mine had once stated “ Talking crap is talking mental and  not creative, but talking different is.”   ‘ Different’ that is the difference between the meaning of the term ‘mental.’  Different, Hatke, something that has never been done before, something that others will not dare to do, that is perhaps the ‘mental’ which is the key to success.

Thus this World Mental Health Day…………. cheers to us all who call ourselves Mental!!