Exploring Strange New Worlds

Blog 22 of 30

While Kreeda became the soul of Masterpage, there was much much more happening, and it was strange that it happened through Kreeda. This is how it all began.

I was confused about Kreeda. Was it going to be NGO? Was I going to fund it myself? Was I just going to make more and more of the same eight games? I was not quite sure what to do. I was fascinated by the games, fascinated by the research, but where would the money come from? How would I sustain it? Would I sell that many games? Remember this was back at the time when marketing was traditional. There was no social media. Many people did not have email. How would I build awareness about games that people had forgotten?

We were a small brand, with no money for traditional marketing. We were not big enough for stores to push us. So, what would I do? I did speak to couple of funders, but their ideas were constraining. Games though, were a whole new field. I did not want to be constrained or locked in a box or told what to do simply because someone had given me money. I didn’t like being told what to do under any circumstances!

It was then a dear friend Suja Isaac called me. Suja and I had grown up together from kindergarten, and she is one of the most hard-working and capable people I know. A friend of hers had picked up some Kreeda games. When she had told him about me, he had an interesting offer. A new NGO called the Heroes Project was being set up by Hollywood icon Richard Gere and Mumbai socialite Parameshwar Godrej. Its purpose was an awareness building response to the HIV /AIDS crisis by involving film stars, movie directors, TV show producers and other celebrities. They were looking for someone with communication expertise.

Suja felt that I was too pre-occupied with Kreeda, but he was very keen to talk to me. So, we had a conversation, but a full-time job was simply not what I was looking for. I turned him down and suggested a few other people. He called me back again a month later and said that the other people washed out and he was very very keen for someone from the project to meet with me. I met with them. They were not looking for a 9 to 5 person but someone who could make things happen. It involved speaking to people in the entertainment industry – movie producers and directors, television serial producers, directors, actors and getting them to bring in accurate and sensitive messaging on HIV and the connected issues into their scripts.

In the early 2000’s no one wanted to talk about HIV. Talking about sex or condoms was a no-no. It still is today, but social media has made access to information so much easier. It was a challenge to the communications specialist in me. It was difficult and to prove I could do it was a challenge. If I could do this, I believed I could do anything.

But the film industry – that raised a whole lot of other questions. I had never been a movie person. I preferred reading. And the Indian film industry was something I was and still am barely in touch with. I knew a handful of actors by name. That was it. Was it something I could do or tackle? I was not sure? A discussion with my husband clarified nothing. He was unsure about working with film stars and movie producers. He didn’t know if I would enjoy it. But over a dinner at my house, a dear friend, Ravi Viswanathan, turned around and told me that if I enjoyed the idea of the challenge, I must do it. I had always appreciated his common sense and level headedness, and something in his emphasis, made me decide to say yes.

There was one other thing that convinced me. Although it was an NGO the pay was good. And that gave me a solution on what to do with Kreeda. I could take this job and fund Kreeda myself. tween Ravi’s convincing me and finding a solution to Kreeda, I found myself saying yes to the project.  

Technically they signed on Vinita, not Masterpage. But Masterpage and I were inseparable which meant my team worked with me no matter what I did. Over the next decade and more, working in the development sector, I met people from all walks of life, people who had surmounted the most challenging obstacles, people who had been ostracised shunned and abandoned and still found the courage to smile. That yes to took me on a journey that would open my eyes to so many aspects of life, humanity, value systems and people that changed me as a person and my life forever.