While at the crossroads....which some of us reach more often than most others do in our careers....I have been accosted with a whole lot of suggestions from a host of sympathetic people ranging from my equally languishing neighbourhood friend... to the ever so warm young wise men I stumble upon who perhaps feel stealthily good to note my discomfiture at being currently a general nuisance at home.
They tell me why not I get into the world of online training, consultancy and mentoring. "Consider your special attributes, sir..." they say.... "with your repertoire, exposure, experience etc. you should be doing a number of online sessions and earning a few lacs in under a month...and in the process build a brand and have everyone eating out of your hand while you keep raking it in...."
Mmm. Then they talk to me of webinars. The
'in-thing' now they vouch. They go on to talk of every Ajay, Azhar and Alex....Ann, Aruna and Afiza doing it effortlessly and laughing all the way to the Bank, pooh-poohing the drab Covid season.
But I, for more reasons than one, seem to resist this because to me a webinar is a dull orchestration of all your histrionics and articulation that gets wasted and spent over a flat, dumb screen. And with no certainty of whether you are being seen or heard at all clearly and consistently . .. due to perpetually error-prone Wi-Fis in most houses... while you risk talking and doing all dramatics in front of, for all that I know, a plain straight-wall.
"Where is your audience?" I ask. "Virtual? Virtual where? Who's applauding? That deliberate remark I made wasted? Why is there no excitement? Zoom in and out. How many there? Only 6 so far? What kind of promotion did we do...? Sunk our monies there for six infernal blighters ...that too virtual? Or were they the few cronies who generally attend and make their presence felt...by commenting, as in an fb live Karaoke session, ready stuff like "Amazing, Wah Wah, 10 on 10, You Rock" etc etc."
Yeah, I admit there may be exponents in the art of conducting webinars and there also maybe online superstars who carry and display their skills so effectively while netizens all over the world stay glued and follow them all to the last word...and also benefit in good measure.
If i still put in all those efforts and then get to see a very limp response I will begin to rue the day I took my first step. "No" says my daughter. "You have a class which you will never know and you will overcome all these initial hiccups easily. You will easily master this game Dad and this is right up your alley..." Maybe she would have added, "And you have no better choice now Dad,"... but she didn't. She is more confident than most of my followers ( er....from my dreamy past tho' ) about my online success and stardom.
Any which way it looks like I cannot ignore this. Not again. And I don't think there are enough avenues for a real senior like me because at my age, which is just a number I know, you either do or you might as well DO.
I shall soon begin my net practice...throw in a cork ball ...and begin to bat as whimsically as I can into the nothingness called the web.
#Webinar ...here I come...!
