Monday, August 3, 2020

Podcast S1 E9: Nix it, Fix it!

Hi and a big welcome to Lost in Labyrinth!

I have enjoyed bringing to you these last 8 podcast. My process usually begins by the ensuing weekend where I ponder over the next topic that I strongly feel about. Monday is a busy day, I do bit of a research and identify the structure in my head. Time permitting, I write my first draft. If not Monday then Tuesday. Wednesday morning I wake up early, to make the most of my free time as the summer vacations have begun and finalize the content to write, something like a final copy. Taking in a few suggestions over the next 2 days,  Friday is when I record and release the podcast. The reason why I am telling you all this is because of late I received at least  15 requests to post a monogram picture with challenge accepted. Not a very social media driven person , I decided to read about what this campaign is. The more I read about it, the further I found my friends to the real cause. The cause first launched about a week and a half ago snowballed into something so big but so distant from the actual cause. As of yesterday there were 53,00,000 Instagram images viral under this hashtag! Finally yesterday all the major media houses picked up the news and decided to propagate it. I am sure by now all of you know the real cause. How this all impacted me? I had to delete the whole post and Thursday, today is when I am writing anew. 

So what better than to dedicate this post to last minute improvs whether a goof-up or not!!

I am sure all of us have encountered such situations and I certainly have a plethora of examples to share. I am always the goofy one! But on a brighter side searching for last minute fixes is a brilliant exercise in cultivate smartness. As goes the Murphy Law adage, if something has to go wrong it will! So what then are the take aways from these situations: Being responsive and spontaneous, thinking on your feet, to have solution-oriented outlook, not giving up and most importantly developing a sense of humor to look at the lighter side of things- some of the absolute essential qualities to have!

You will be surprised to know how some of the iconic TV moments have accredited their success to such mishappenings, so as to say! Poor TV writers, they take months and months to perfect their scripts, only for some bizarre quirk at the last minute that changes everything, making the improvised moment the best bit in the entire episode. Like the best came from which is never planned! 
David Schwimmer accidentally called "Rachel" at Ross's wedding. Writer Greg Malins revealed that David mistakenly said Rachel and they liked the twist so much that they completely rewrote the whole season 5 finale. 
Or, the Office wouldn't have existed if Ricky Gervais wasn't so lazy! Why? Because his long time colleague and co-writer Stephan Merchant only started working with him when he needed an assistant, working in London in 1997. He admitted he called Stephan for an interview because his was the first CV that was handed to Ricky and he was so lazy to go through the others. Within a year, they were co-hosting their own radio show and the rest is history!
There are plenty other examples, NCIS the famous 'Gibbs slap' was an actual slap that was never scripted. Or in Breaking Bad, the runaway scene, in season 2, where Jesse dashes for Walt's car to run away from Hank and his men was so much more intense when the car door actually jammed, and the director decided to keep it.

Professionally, I have fair share of moments that I can share with you, but I'd rather refrain. Talking about my personal life though, I did my college from St. Xavier's , Mumbai. It was my dream, for the better part of my teenage years and I was ecstatic to get an interview. Full of nervousness and optimism when my turn came, I seated myself infront of the panel of interviewers. Allow me describe it to you...It was a relatively large room with somehow a small table and there were 5 people sitting around to fire questions at you. I seated myself confidently opposite to them and started answering. Once I start speaking, there is this whole flow of thoughts that run through my mind amid answering. In the middle of this whole session I realized, this whole time, I had placed my foot on top of one of these interviewers. Too nervous now to move I chose to keep it for the rest of interview. Towards the end someone asked, the course you have opted for requires you to be very confident and how do we know that you will be even when things go south? Finding myself at the loss of any clever answer at that moment, I answered, that sometime in the middle of the interview I realized my folly, but continued to do so knowing both of us are now comfortable with the arrangement goes to speak a lot about my confidence! The panel burst into laughter and thanked me for reviving their day with humor!

I am almost certain each of one will have a story like this to share where your goof-up was well concealed with some last minute fixes. After all it is well said,
" Never judge a person for their mistakes,
  Judge a person on how they fix them! "

And with that wishing you a very joyous weekend ahead and hoping to read some of your stories in the  comments! Goodbye and take care.






 

 



 

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