My Keyboard, My Kaapi, and the Client Who Wanted "Viral"

7:00 AM (Theoretically): My alarm, set to a motivational Bollywood track ("Apna Time Aayega!"), is brutally snoozed. The dream I was having – where I convinced a client that a 500-word blog on "The Philosophical Implications of Gobi Manchurian" would definitely go viral – fades. Reality, and the faint smell of yesterday's chai from my "World's Okayest Writer" mug, bites.

 

8:30 AM (Actually): I am a blurry-eyed torpedo, navigating the thrilling obstacle course that is Indian peak-hour traffic. Honking is the national anthem, and lane discipline is a myth whispered by our grandparents. My auto-wala, a philosopher in his own right, is already dispensing life advice and predictions on today's cricket match. I nod, pretending to absorb his wisdom while mentally drafting an urgent email subject line: "VERY URGENT (No, REALLY THIS TIME!) - Query on That Thing We Discussed Yesterday (Maybe?)."

 

9:30 AM: Arrival at "Words R Us" (or whatever vaguely inspiring/punny name our agency boasts this month). The office is already a symphony of keyboard clicks that sound like a thousand tiny, caffeinated squirrels, the whir of the ancient AC unit that has its own personality (mostly grumpy), and the distant but ever-present rumble of the office coffee-maker – the true heart of this operation.

 

Priya, our eagle-eyed HR-turned-Admin-turned-Resident-Agony-Aunt, greets me with a knowing smile. "Long night with the muse, Avi?" she asks, already handing me a list of 'small changes' from a client that look suspiciously like a complete rewrite.

 

10:00 AM: The First Sacred Ritual – Kaapi Time. This isn't just a beverage break; it's a strategic meeting, a gossip exchange, a therapy session, and occasionally, a brainstorming hub. Sunil from Graphics is lamenting about a client who wants their logo "bigger, but also smaller, and can it pop more, like, really pop?" while Meera, our SEO whiz, is explaining the arcane mysteries of Google's latest algorithm update using analogies involving reincarnation and good karma. I sip my bitter concoction, the steam a mini-sauna for my still-sleepy face.

 

10:30 AM - 1:30 PM: The Word Mines. My battlefield: a slightly sticky keyboard and a monitor displaying a terrifyingly blank document. Today's challenge? "Craft a 1000-word engaging blog post on the socio-economic impact of AI on traditional pickle-making businesses. Make it youthful. And add a CTA for a free webinar." Right.

 

The process is a familiar dance:

1. Procrasti-research: Deep dive into the history of pickle-making. Get sidetracked by a video of a cat playing a tiny piano.

 

2. The Caffeine Infusion: A second, stronger cup of kapi (coffee, for the uninitiated) is summoned. Its magical properties are essential for stringing coherent sentences together.

 

3. The "Jugaad" Draft: When inspiration fails, ingenuity (or what we lovingly call 'jugaad') prevails. This involves creatively repurposing old ideas, stringing together jargon like sacred beads, and hoping the client is more impressed by the word count than the actual content. (Don't tell my boss I said that).

 

4. The Sudden "Brilliant" Idea: Usually hits around the 800-word mark, requiring a frantic rewrite of the first half. Today, it's a subheading: "Will Your Achaar Be Replaced by an Algorithm?" Genius. Or desperate. The line is thin.

 

1:30 PM: Lunch – The Great Escape (to the Canteen). A cacophony of dabbas opening, the aroma of a dozen different home-cooked meals mingling. Today's hot topic: who snagged the last samosa and the ongoing debate about whether pineapple on pizza is a culinary crime punishable by social ostracization.

 

2:30 PM - 5:00 PM: Client Calls & "Feedback" Fun. This is where the real adventure begins.

 

Client 1 (The Vague Visionary): "Avi, love the blog! Just a few tiny tweaks. Can we make it… more… blue? Not the color, the feeling. You know?" (I do not know.)

 

Client 2 (The Keyword King): "Great article, but can you add 'best digital transformation AI pickle solutions India' 17 more times? Organically, of course."

 

Client 3 (The "Viral" Chaser): "It's good, but will it go viral? My nephew made a video of his dog sneezing and got a million views. Can we do that? For our B2B SaaS product?" (Deep breaths, Avi, deep breaths).

 

This is where my diplomatic skills, honed by years of haggling with street vendors, truly shine. "Absolutely, great suggestion! Let me see how we can synergize that value-add into the core messaging..."

 

5:00 PM: The Second Sacred Ritual – Evening Coffee & Existential Musings. The caffeine high is wearing off, replaced by a gentle, weary buzz. We gather, a band of slightly battered word warriors. Someone inevitably brings up the latest impossible client request, and we all share a moment of cathartic laughter. This is also when brilliant, completely unusable ideas for passion projects are born. "Dude, a web series about a chai-wala who solves crimes using tea-leaf reading!"

 

6:30 PM (Or, "When the Last Urgent Email is Finally Sent"): I shut down my computer, my brain feeling like a well-squeezed lime. Another day, another thousand words (give or take a few hundred that were brutally edited out). As I brave the evening commute, the auto-wala, now an expert on alien conspiracies, provides the soundtrack.

 

I might grumble, I might overdose on caffeine, and I might occasionally dream of running away to write poetry in the Himalayas. But as I see the city lights blur past, there's a strange satisfaction. We spun words into something (hopefully) meaningful, navigated the beautiful chaos of an Indian agency, and lived to tell the tale.

 

And who knows? Maybe tomorrow, that Gobi Manchurian piece will go viral. Apna time aayega, right?