YuktiPradhan

Int. writer's desk - late

A brief history of wanting to be interesting.

I've always liked attention. Not in a please look at me way. More in a I hope you noticed that I didn't ask you to look at me way. Subtlety was the goal. Whether I achieved it is a matter of public opinion.

Then I moved abroad after high school and got humbled by geography.

Turns out, there's a big difference between being the main character in a familiar room and being a stout infantfish in an ocean full of people who are also the main characters. My light wasn't exactly switched off. It just wasn't the brightest thing in the room anymore. Character development, I guess.

I did what any confused young adult with a vague interest in being interesting would do. I studied marketing.

I landed an internship at a dating company, got hired as a Marketing Associate, and spent my time learning about brands, people, and the very elaborate things we do to get someone to like us. Professionally, this time.

Eventually, I moved back to India. I missed home, my people, and being able to exist without constantly feeling like I was auditioning for a life I wasn't entirely enjoying.

I also moved back in with my parents. Which, at this age, comes with its own terms and conditions. But when your mental health is better living with your parents than it was living abroad, you don't really need a SWOT analysis to figure out which decision was right.

Then came my bakery era. I wanted to start a dessert business, and I actually did something about it. I supplied tiramisu to a few local cafés and learned a thing or two about running a food business. But somewhere between making desserts and figuring out the next step, I realised I missed marketing.

So I went back to work. First, at an immigration agency, which was a rather efficient way of being reminded of a life I'd already decided to leave behind. Then I joined a marketing agency handling clients across wildly different industries.

I worked on content for doctors, architects, wellness influencers and financial advisors. Which meant one day I could be figuring out how to make a medical concept interesting, the next how to sell a design philosophy, and then how to make personal finance sound like something you'd voluntarily watch on the internet. It was a crash course in the fact that every industry has a story. Some just need a little more digging.

That job was genuinely fun. I got to brainstorm, write, experiment, work across niches and learn from people who knew their stuff. More importantly, I figured out that I really like taking an idea, finding the interesting bit hiding inside it, and turning it into something people actually want to watch.

Now I'm a freelance content strategist and scriptwriter, helping brands figure out what to say, how to say it, and how to make people care. I'm also helping my mom build her spice-blend brand, because apparently one career path and one side quest weren't enough.

So, that's the story so far.

I went from wanting people to notice me to making a living figuring out what makes people pay attention.

Turns out, the attention-seeking was never the problem. I just needed to monetise it.