A sprawling white bungalow to work in, a backyard to play cricket and a neighbourhood cat to cosy up to, this could be the ideal workplace
Imagine crawling through bumper-to-bumper traffic as you make your way to office along CBD to Whitefield five days a week. It’s enough to take the cheer out of one’s morning. That’s precisely what Sharad Devarajan, co-founder and CEO of Graphic India, kept it mind while finalising an office space for the start-up that launched in 2013. “I looked at many traditional office spaces. You can’t expect someone to be creative when the atmosphere is not conducive. I was sure I needed a place with great natural light, big open area,” Devarajan explains, sitting in his 300 sq ft cabin with an enormous painting of Brahma creating the world (a scene from their hit animation series 18 Days).
Tucked away in the lush greenery of Dodsworth Estates in Whitefield, Graphic India is housed in a palatial white bungalow built on a 6,000 sq ft plot on Jacaranda Avenue. At first glance, you might mistake it for the summer house of some well-to-do businessman but take a few steps towards the massive wooden main door and you’d be welcomed by the chatter of young men in half pants and graffiti t-shirts making their way up a staircase that bifurcates rather grandly in the centre, leading to the first floor.
It’s been a little over a year since the team moved to this new address after almost a year of working from home and the excitement is palpable on the faces of the 20-odd employees. “It feels like working from home,” says 25-year-old Dhanashekar A, an animator who has been with the company for two years.
Graphic India is an entertainment company focused on creating characters, comics and stories inspired by Indian mythology and real-life circumstances through mobile and digital platforms. Founded by Devarajan, Gotham Chopra and Suresh Seetharaman, some of their successful animation series and graphic novels include Ramayan 3392 AD, The Leaves and The Sadhu. Hence, the walls are splashed with colourful renditions of their comic book heroes, including characters from their animated digital series 18 Days which is a re-imagination of the Mahabharata. With pristine white workstations and MAC personal computers for each employee, the office, Devarajan says, still needs some interior work. The discussion room, for instance, is a bare room with a six-seater-table that leads to a splendid balcony with a view of the street. They have retained the earlier pooja room but jazzed it up with graffiti artworks of Ganesha and Arjuna.
Amidst all the colour and cartoons, one is distracted by the aroma of Indian spices wafting from the open kitchen on the ground floor.
Every day, the employees are treated to freshly-cooked food and on the day we visited, Rekha (the cook), had made chapattis and chana curry. A peak into the refrigerator yielded another surprise — a bag of Drools (cat food). “Oh that’s for our neighbourhood cat Pacman,” says Ashish Avin, 31, their digital content producer, sipping on his afternoon coffee. “Actually, Pacman is the reason why I took up this job. The cat was lying on the couch here and no one seemed to care less about a cat on the couch. I mean which workplace is pet-friendly right?” says Vaishali Mehta, 31, a senior marketing manager who joined in March.
Pacman (or fatso) as most of them call the cat is a regular visitor when the office opens at 7 am for the first batch of animators. “We are flexible on time and our animators come in around 7 and leave early evening so they can beat the peak-hour traffic,” Devarajan says. Apart from Pacman, the office is also home to a rescued pup — Veeru — who Avin found on Sarjapur main road. “He was almost run over by a truck. We will keep him here until we find someone who can adopt him,” Avin says.
Post lunch, to let the food settle in, the men (whenever they feel like taking a break), team up for a round of tennis ball cricket. The backyard (with chikkoo and avocado trees and also a basketball net) is the perfect setting. They can smoke, chill, ideate and play here. “Actually we played basketball every Saturday afternoon but the ball deflated a month ago,” says Manjunath Ramu, 26, senior animator.
It’s not just the spacious office but also the work culture that keeps this team of 20 going strong. “You can’t put in long hours or enjoy what you do unless you like being here and our goal was to give our employees a home-like feeling when they are here,” says Devarajan. It’s hard not to agree with him. We are sure even Pacman does.
source: http://www.bangaloremirror.com / Bangalore Mirror / Home> Columns>Work / by Nandini Kumar, Bangalore Mirro Bureau / March 10th, 2015