Life beyond advertising: Hari Chakyar

(Life beyond advertising is a weekly feature, where we speak to advertising’s interesting people; people who do crazy, creative things after working hours. We try and understand their passion and drive for what they do, what makes them tick and what it takes to wear multiple hats.

If you fit the above description to the tee and would like to be featured, write to us at mukta.lad@web18.in.)

Meet Hari Chakyar, creative supervisor (Copy) at Grey by day (and sometimes by night), and the ‘Paperwalla’ at other waking hours. At Grey, Chakyar writes copy for accounts like Cadbury Dairy Milk Silk, Sony Entertainment Television, Aditya Birla Life Insurance, among others. Paperwalla is Chakyar’s side project; he creates / narrates stories using paper as a medium.

We caught up with him to know more about his Paperwalla personality.

[caption id=“attachment_82428” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Chakyar is a writer with Grey[/caption]

What is Paperwalla all about? How old is the project?

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Paperwalla is my alter ego that loves cutting paper and arranging it in shapes that look splendid. I have been cutting paper and doing other forms of craft since I was in school but the name ‘Paperwalla’ only came about after a friend suggested it. Then came the Facebook page in 2011.

Do you ever see yourself wanting to quit your job and do marvellous things with Paperwalla? Do you see the scope to live off of it, for instance?

I think about it every day! But Paperwalla won’t pay my rent just yet. For now, it is a pet project that I indulge in whenever I can make the time.

What is the best thing about working with paper?

Cutting paper into precise shapes takes a lot of precision, especially when you are doing intricate designs. I find the entire process of tracing, re-tracing, cutting and pasting very therapeutic.

…And the worst?

My cats hate it when I cut paper because I have a lot of colourful bits of paper all around that I won’t let them touch.

Working with paper also means I cannot put on the fan and I don’t have an air-conditioner. (Why do you have to get me to complain so much about something I like?)

Making something out of paper also takes a lot of time and effort. Every frame I make sees a phase where I have almost given up. But then a small break helps me ride over this feeling.

Do you follow the work of another artist who works with paper, too? If yes, who and why?

I started ‘Paperwalla Art’ after I saw a paper horse made by this California-based artist called Tina Tarnoff. I just had to try making it myself.

What is your personal favourite piece of work as the Paperwalla?

That’s difficult to answer because I have many favourites. But I like the effort I put on a Heisenberg frame. I also like ‘Jug Soona Soona Laage’ (pictured below) for the kicks it gives me.

There’s also one frame that I don’t part with - the open bra strap called ‘Triumph’ (also pictured below).

How do you make the time for a Paperwalla story, despite having a job like advertising?

Paper Stories is a series of stories from my mom’s childhood, the way she remembers them. It is 89% fact and the rest is fiction (I’m bad at math). I have been trying to get her to write these down because all the stories sound so amazing but she just won’t write. I’m trying to document them one by one.

For instance, ‘The Singing Well’ is one of Paperwalla’s many projects. And how do I manage it? I log out of Facebook and try to stay logged out.

If you had to give one tip to the rest of the world on maintaining the work-life-passion balance, what would it be?

I don’t know about other occupations, but I believe that people employed in the creative industry constantly need to be doing various creative things. The digital writer/thinker lives his/her life on social media and is so caught up that they have stopped creating (making) things. The ‘creative’ writer will soon become a bot if they did nothing to get out of office and do other fun things.

Glimpses of Chakyar’s work:

[caption id=“attachment_82430” align=“alignleft” width=“620”] Jug Soona Soona Laage is one of Chakyar’s personal favourites (Photo credit: Tripta Bhatia)[/caption]

[caption id=“attachment_82431” align=“alignleft” width=“620”] Chakyar loves ‘Triumph’ because it is cheeky (Photo credit: Tripta Bhatia)[/caption]