Jaiman heads children's media company

Published: January 19, 2006

School of Journalism alumni have found jobs all over the world, careers that build on their journalism studies. This series by Suzannah Evans asked some of those alumni to reflect on their careers.

Arti Jaiman, M.A. '97, poses far left with her family during a vacation. (Courtesy photo)

Arti Jaiman, M.A. '97

Hometown:
I've grown up in New Delhi, the capital of India. It's where I went to school, college, and got my first job before flying off to Bloomington for my master's.

Current residence:
For the last 12 years I have lived in Gurgaon, a suburb of New Delhi. It used to be a sleepy place that people from Delhi moved to because housing in Delhi was so expensive. Today it is a hip and happening place that is famous as the home of the Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) industry and their humungous call centers that cater to companies based around the world, especially in the U.S.

Job:
I used to work with the arts pages of The Economic Times. In 1997 I joined my husband in starting a media company for children, with a Web presence on www.pitara.com . Today, I divide my time between freelance writing and editing assignments and managing the content on www.pitara.com.

Describe your typical workday:
My typical workday is a mish-mash of home-related chores and being glued to the laptop. I'm free to sit down to work once my kids are off to school. I work till late afternoon after which my time belongs to the family. Occasionally deadlines crop up, and I have to work in the evening and late at night but the kids and my husband instinctively know that they have to steer clear of my workspace.

Is this where you imagined you'd end up?
Not really. One reason I had done a master's degree in journalism was to teach journalism in India at some point in my life. Somehow that opportunity has not come up. I don't really regret it because the work I have done gives me a lot of satisfaction.

What's your proudest professional moment so far?
Creating www.pitara.com no doubt has been the most stupendous achievement. As a journalist, it would have to be my coverage of "Doors of Perception," an international convention on design in The Netherlands. It was here that I could interact with and interview sterling minds from across the world. I returned to cover the convention in a one-page feature in The Economic Times, which was also designed by me.

What's your favorite memory of Bloomington or IU?
I have so many favorite memories of Bloomington. Lounging under a tree in the Arboretum with a stack of books checked out from the library; getting together with friends at the Runcible Spoon or at Bear's Place ostensibly to discuss an upcoming assignment, being an usher at Brown County Playhouse so that I could watch some of the plays...the list is endless. The time that I was at IU was one of discovery and delight. In a way, I found myself there.

Tell us something about where you live that we don't know:

When I went to Bloomington, India had two television channels and one radio station. Today, there are nearly 100 channels and endless radio stations belting out basically the latest Indian film music.

For a media analyst (and I don't claim to be one), watching TV can be rather revealing. We're a nation obsessed with religion and ritual (we actually have five or six channels dedicated to just that), gory news (again, exclusive news channels focusing on Most Wanted Criminals, and the Most Gory Crime, are a dime a dozen), and Indian films (a third of the channels shows either films or film music).

Yes, some of us are reflective, those of us who have had wider exposure can possibly also claim to have "refined taste" but we're basically made of the same DNA. Our husbands may work in the Indian operations of IBM, or American Express, or Google, and the youngsters manning the call centers may put on fake American accents and take on fake American names, but at parties, our favorite music is the rhythmic music that comes with raunchy Hindi lyrics, and we've managed to arm-twist McDonald's and Pizza Hut into serving Green Chilli pizza and McCurry Pan!

Are you a graduate living and working overseas? The School of Journalism would like to hear from you as well. Contact Suzannah Evans (sudevans@indiana.edu) to fill out a short survey and let your classmates know about your exotic home and work.

Return to main story, Alumni find careers in far-flung places.