The Journey: Pablo Chaterji – Letting passion bring out the best
The Journey’ continues on India’s Premiere English business news channel BTVI. Presented by Hyundai, the series features famous personalities from various sectors, who share their success stories and future plans. The show mainly concentrates on how they built their careers and stayed ahead of competition in today’s fast changing environment.
‘Hyundai Presents The Journey’ airs on Business Television India (BTVI) every Saturday at 8 pm and Sunday at 1.30 pm.
Episode 6 - The Journey with Pablo Chaterji.
Well trained film maker who got into journalism, almost by accident in 2003 and went on to pursue his career in automotive and lifestyle, travelling all around the world, driving and riding some fancy cars and bikes. Photography is something that he has loved and he is very good at. Today he is the Managing Editor at Mans World. Yes we are talking about Pablo Chaterji.
How has your journey been so far? Did you see yourself standing here while you were growing up? Did you aspire to be where you are today?
As a child and as I grew older, I’ve always had an interest in automobiles. Cars and bikes have always fascinated me, but not once did I think that I would end up being an automotive journalist; doing this is not just as a career, but something that I truly love. My world view had developed pretty early, besides I was lucky as my parents were extremely particular that I was exposed to different cultures. But I never woke up in the morning and said that when I am 25 years old I will be an astronaut or a nuclear physicist, like many others. For me, it’s been an interesting journey getting here because I have learnt a lot along the way. And one of the things that I learnt is that you need not necessarily have a fixed goal in mind as to what you want to do. In my experience, the journey itself is the destination and I have learnt far more in my work life, beginning from when I was an ad film maker.
How did the transition from an ad film maker to a lifestyle journalist happen?
That again is a question of being in the right place at the right time. Business Standard Motoring, a magazine where I used to work earlier, was about to start a television show, which would have been the first automotive television show in the country in 2002. A very close friend of mine who was already working at BS Motoring came to me and asked me if I would like to join the new show since I had a background in film and television? I instantly agreed as it sounded like a dream job to me and so I packed my bags and moved from Chennai to Mumbai. However, when I went to the Business Standard office, I was told that the show was cancelled.
I was then left in Mumbai with my few belongings and nothing to do. At that point I was really apprehensive about what to do next. The first thing that I did was call my parents and tell them what had happened. As always, my parents were very calm and assured me that we would figure out something. I then happened to call my Godmother, who is a very established film maker based out of Mumbai, and narrated to her what had happened to me. She told me that she was looking for someone to work with her and asked me to join her. That’s how I ended up here and spent about a year, during which I learnt a lot of things.
I also found out that in terms of film making, the advertising world wasn’t really for me and thought that maybe it was time to do something else. My friend from BS Motoring called me again and asked me if I would like to join them as a travel writer. Since I have been interested in travel as well, I jumped with both feet in even though I had no formal experience in writing for media other than writing for my school and college magazines.
I consider myself really lucky, because other than being at the right place at the right time, there have been people in my life who decided that I am very capable, and I am the kind of person who will underplay all the time. My first bosses, to whom I really owe my career in journalism, decided that I am capable of doing the job just on the basis of my writing, which was sketchy, and my photographs from college days.
I was quite nervous when I went to the Business Standard office for the second time. My bosses wanted me to meet the resident editor before completing the formalities. I was expecting an interview of some sort, but he looked at me and asked ‘who is this?’ My bosses introduced me. I used to wear an ear-ring and so did the resident editor. I couldn’t believe my ears when he said, ‘This guy wears an ear-ring, hire him!’ It was very unreal for me.
I joined Business Standard Motoring on July 31, which incidentally was also my birthday, and on that very day I was handed the keys to a car and told to get out and come back with 2-3 stories.
How did ‘Man’s World’ come to you?
It was again being at the right place at the right time and things falling into place. I’d spent a good part of dozen years in automotive journalism, where I began as a rookie in BS Motoring magazine and worked my way up to editing it one day. Throughout my life I’ve had interests in a variety of things like pop culture, music, food, wine, etc. After working for a dozen years, I began to think about the need to do something else and write about something else. Around that time I received a call from my friend, Murli Menon, whom I replaced at BS Motoring as a travel writer – it became a joke that I followed Murli everywhere. He told me about an opening that would be of interest to me. I already knew Radhakrishnan Nair, who is a publisher and editor-in-chief and a friend of mine, and also one of the finest journalistic minds that I have ever met. I again grabbed the opportunity with both hands because I figured it was time to expand my horizons.
Who has been your inspiration? How did reading impact your thinking?
Both my parents had background in advertising. My father is also an actor and so I had an extremely liberal and open childhood. My parents have always encouraged me to do everything I have ever wanted. They let me be and never pointed me towards one particular direction. They presented me with a variety of options and experience of cultures from all over the world through reading, music and films.
My education began much before I joined school. I developed a variety of interests while I was quite young. The boarding school that I went to in Ooty, called the Blue Mountain School, was run on the philosophies of J Krishnamurthy, where there was no punishment. There was lesser competition as compared to other schools and a lot of emphasis was given on extracurricular activities like sports, painting, art, music. They also made sure everyone in the school was exposed to a wide variety of world music. You began to soak in these things and young minds tend to be more open than adult minds. My school going years were instrumental in fashioning who I am today.
What is your ideal day beyond work? How do you spend your time?
I am not much of an extrovert, though over the years I have started going out and socialising more. But the fact remains that I have a fairly small and selective bunch of friends who are from my school days. I love music and so I listen to a lot of music all day. I play the guitar (entirely self-taught) and I make as much time as I can to play it. I took piano lessons when I was young, living in Kolkata, and had even won a lot of awards when I was just 6 years old. However, I gave it up because in order to play the piano well and to progress through different levels, you have to practice a lot, whereas all I wanted to do at that time was to go out and play cricket with my friends.
It’s one of my eternal regrets that I gave up piano lessons, as I was really good at it. But there was a certain musical tuning and then one day when I picked up a guitar, I taught myself and I was able to play it.
How was it for you to decide on this, because all other passions could be your potential careers?
For me, photography began with playing with cameras; as it were, my father was an extremely accomplished photographer as well. I picked up his camera one day and was curious about it, so he taught me the basics. Photography was one of the subjects in my visual communication degree in college in Chennai and I learnt it formally.
Where do you see yourself going forward?
I have always been told that I should try my hand at acting. I did a fair amount of theatre while I was in school and college, but it’s one of those things that I find difficult to judge about myself. I did get a few opportunities to act, but it had clashed with my work. I do have that acting bug in me and it runs in the family as well.
What is your biggest regret and what have you learnt from it?
You don’t necessarily need to be a driven person or need to know what your life is going to be like. You don’t have to be a meticulous planner either, to end up doing things that you really love, and I speak from pure personal experience.
I have not been a very ambitious person like a lot of my friends have been since a very young age and honestly, that’s never being me. If you ask me two years down the line what I saw myself doing, I won’t be able to answer that, but I may have a vague idea. I used to think if I am not as smart or intelligent or driven as the people around me, but I have discovered that’s not really the case. It is not necessary to have a laser focus and be completely driven.
What are the ingredients and non-negotiable here?
Some of the non-negotiables that I adhere to in my own life are a little unconventional. You have to learn to take yourself and life with a fair amount of humour; don’t take yourself too seriously because at the end of day, you will literally just drop in the ocean. In the real picture, you are not as significant as you think you are. Learn to take life with a pinch of salt and don’t take everything too seriously. Don’t take or do things that you feel is the only way to do this, because it isn’t and there’s always another way. I think you always have to maintain an open mind, be liberal about things, maintain a liberal outset and be open to new experiences. If you are passionate about something, you work hard for it. Passion will drive you when you find what you were meant to do. It works in reverse and you don’t have to be passionate about one thing and then end up doing it. A lot of people in their zeal to reach point A end up missing a lot from the journey itself, which, as far as I am concerned, is a very important part. The journey to be there is far more interesting than the destination itself.
READ MORE :
https://www.adgully.com/the-journey-lopamudra-raut-setting-beauty-goals-75555.html
https://www.adgully.com/the-journey-prajakta-koli-influencing-young-minds-through-youtube-75337.html
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