Girls at work: Maya

Hi Style Stars, happy Summer Solstice! In this edition of Girls at work, we’re joined by Maya, a writer/director/educator who’s spent three years on staff at Dimes Market, now picking up summer shifts while she focuses on her creative practice.

Dimes Market is, of course, one third of the organic food mini-empire that gave Dimes Square — perhaps somehow still the city’s most controversial neighborhood — its name. For American Style, Maya takes us through her routine, the best and worst things about working smack dab in the middle of Dimes Square, and why she doesn’t vibe with term ‘day job.’

Name: Maya Devika Rajan

Age: 27

Occupation: Writer/Director/Educator/Cover Girl at Dimes Market

Hometown/where you live now: Cos Cob/Manhattan, now Brooklyn

How you find your current job(s): Mostly through friends and NYFA. Freelance stuff from Substack and Instagram

What time do you wake up / go to bed? No consistency on this one. If I’m opening, I’m up at 6 and try to be in bed by 11. Naturally, I wake up around 8, but I can spend a lot of time scrolling in bed in the mornings, which I know is really bad and I am working on it.

How do you get ready for work? How long does it take you? I shower as soon as I get up. Brush my teeth in there. I moisturize with Everyday Oil (hi Tori) then I do my makeup, often using Photo Booth and my phone flash to guide me if it’s early; I don’t want to wake my boyfriend. I do the same makeup every day, a thin line of silver shadow, black eyeliner and some blush on my cheeks. I’ve done my eyes this way since I rewatched The Hunger Games during Covid and saw Lenny Kravitz’s gold shadow look so good.

The whole makeup routine takes about five minutes but most of my morning time is spent trying on outfits. I will never learn to lay one out the night before. I do when I am directing, because I know how anxious I’ll be morning of, but most mornings I leave it to fate. I am not a daily coffee drinker but I always hit a free cup at work. If I am at home I’ll make a tea with a splash of milk and have something to eat with my Vyvanse. In a pinch, I could leave the house within half an hour of waking up. Gun to my head? Make that 15. But in my own time, I give myself an hour. I hate to rush.

What’s your commute like? From my spot in Brooklyn to the Market it’s a blissful 2-train sub-30 journey on autopilot. I also teach documentary filmmaking all over the city. Sometimes I’m just at Lower Eastside Girls Club (best place in the world), which is a perfect people-watching walk up East Broadway/Ave D from my other job. I work in some schools further out, commuting from mine to Rochdale, Tremont, and Mill Basin via some combination of subways, LIRR trains, and buses. I have gotten to spend time in so many parts of the city that I never saw growing up here through teaching, and I get to learn about the neighborhoods through my students’ short docs.

Walking is my peace. If the journey is under an hour and I have time, I will walk. If I can’t walk the whole time, I will still walk some of it. I lived in Glasgow for a bit of 2022 and met my friend Han there; she’s who I want to be when I grow up because she is so present and doesn’t sweat the small stuff and has dedicated so much of her life to creating/supporting DIY scenes. She told me when she first moved to Glasgow from Ireland she would spend her weekends walking; picking a direction and setting off in hopes of trying to understand where she was. I think about her whenever I am walking around with wandering eyes.

What do you usually wear? Something practical but fun. I wear my ROAs almost every day, which were a hand-me-down from my boss and the most supportive shoes I’ve ever worn. I wear a lot of skirts that teeter more on tutu, I love layering and playing with opacity, I always wear the same jewelry. I have been in a silver phase since early college, but when I was visiting my mum last month I discovered this necklace my grandfather gave me when I was born. It is a new staple. I just turned 27 and he turns 100 in August. Crazy that the necklace just found me but it feels right.

One time at the Market this gay guy got really close to me and whispered in my ear, “I love this like, girl-scout-soccer-player-fairy-nymph vibe.” I think about that a lot, I was wearing a fishing vest, track pants under a short skirt, and some dusty purple top I borrowed from Tessa. My boyfriend Ben is Scottish and has supplied me with some great vintage Umbro jackets and Celtic jerseys over the past five Christmases. I love a football top with a girly skirt — I refuse to let Blokette die.

I will always love wearing something my friend made. When I got to Colorado College in 2018 I remember thinking, I will have a million screen-printed shirts by the time I graduate. And I did. Most of these relics rarely see the light of day, as I am not into the massive tee look anymore, but they are objects I hold dear.

My roommate Natasha made me this pigeon hoodie for my 26th birthday, which I adore, and this year she made me this skeletal pigeon top that will be worn constantly when it’s not hot anymore.

What do you do after work? Is there anything you do to unwind? I love unwinding. I lean social if I’ve been working from home or Dimes — even though the Market is very engaging, sometimes I feel like a robot on autopilot there, asking people if they need a bag so many times I forget to listen to the answer. If I finish in the evening sometimes I’ll meet people at Big Dimes, where I get 50% off and we get our weekly nutrients from a dinner there.

Oftentimes I am running out the door to a show, hitting a fast walk to Pianos or being shuttled across the bridge from Delancey. I go to a ton of shows, I love music with all my heart. Live music has always been a huge part of my life here, even as a teenager. Especially as a teenager. It’s been fun getting back into that world since moving back a few years ago, and I have started writing about music a lot more. If I am tired but not ready to go home, I’ll hit the Metrograph. It’s perfect when a movie is just about to start, because I adore their programming but deplore their audiences and prefer the least amount of pre-/post-theatre time there.

Once in a blue moon I’ll walk home after work. It’s a two hour journey that I only ever make when I have adrenaline/anticipation/anxiety to exorcise. My last official shift at the Market was last month and I thought it was going to be really dramatic, think hugs and crying and long words with my boss about how she changed my life. That didn’t happen and thank god given I am covering shifts there already and also just have a friendship with my boss and coworkers and regulars still, but on that night I felt like I could burst at the end of my shift and knew I had to walk it out. I listened to “2018” by Taahliah on loop the whole walk.

I don’t love the term day job. I just think there’s an air of indifference about it that I don’t relate to. I really love these jobs, and I care about them a lot even if it’s not my end game.

If I work in the morning, I love packing the rest of my day full. In the summer I’ll go straight to Rockaway from whatever job, or Prospect Park or Fort Greene if I’m not feeling ready for a full journey. Yesterday I covered a shift at the Market then immediately took the train to a Trans Seafood Boil in Clinton Hill. I like getting thrown into something like that. It was actually a perfect social gathering. I think it’s something about the vulnerability of not really knowing how to eat crawfish. It opens everyone up. Happy Pride.

What is the first thing you spend your pay check on? Concert tickets, cigarettes, fancy seltzer, Bandcamp Friday.

What was your dream job as a kid? What about now? When I was a kid I wanted to be a singer. I realized this dream would never come to fruition during my Catholic school mass in 3rd grade, my teacher pulled me aside when we were all singing a hymn and told me if I didn’t stop making fun of the song she’d call my mum. I wasn’t making fun of anything… I was just singing. My other dream jobs are archived in the journal I kept from 12-21: Buzzfeed host, The First Female Videographer for King of the Road, Vice writer, tour photographer, director, screenwriter.

Beyond a job, all I really wanted as a kid was for my life to be based around friendship, music, and art; in that regard, I am doing great. That’s exactly what my life is like, I just need to find a way to make money too. I want the jobs that have been supported by my ‘day jobs’ to be able to exist on their own. I want to write about music and I want to keep on making films and I want those two things to be able to support me. Part of me thinks I’ll never really break up with service though, no matter how much I can complain, I do love it. I love the ritual of opening, I love building a relationship with regulars, and I love being able to walk down a street and run into a plethora of fellow workers or kind customers. Writing and directing can feel very lonely, so having a service job fills that cup.

Do you consider your job a ‘day job’? I consider my Market and teaching gigs as ‘day jobs’ in terms of them giving me enough of a stable income to be able to take on poorly paid writing and film gigs, or to even put some of my own money into a project, but I don’t love the term day job. I just think there’s an air of indifference about it that I don’t relate to. I really love these jobs, and I care about them a lot even if it’s not my end game. I quit my tenure at the Market last month after three years, hence why I am a cover girl now. I loved that job so much. I have never lived in New York as an adult and not worked there. I quit for no reason other than wanting to force myself into some discomfort. Wanting to leave what I know and see what comes up. It’s been scary to lose the routine of it, and even scarier to lose the consistent income, but I know I am never gonna lose my relationship to that place and its people because they truly mean so much and that doesn’t just go away. When I started there I was newly back and 23 and on the brink, and by the time I left I was 27 and almost three years sober. I grew up in the Market.

The Market has turned Canal into Sesame Street and it is endearing and intimidating to have a block I know I will run into someone.

What is your favorite part of your job? The city feeling smaller. I adore this about all of my jobs. The Market has turned Canal into Sesame Street and it is endearing and intimidating to have a block I know I will run into someone. There’s so much other stuff on in the neighborhood, I feel like I’m always being surprised with friend visits because people are just around there a lot. Making a lot of friends who are older than me, getting close with their kids.

If I am at home I’ll make a tea with a splash of milk and have something to eat with my Vyvanse.

Writing feels similarly small world… The thing about there only being like three music magazines left is that we’re all writing about/going to the same shows. It’s been really sweet and inspiring to meet so many friends through just constantly going to gigs and wanting to share my thoughts about them. I started my newsletter Show Notes back in October. I was always taking photos and videos at gigs and never looking back at them, so I wanted a different way to keep track. This ended up being my blog, where I do a monthly round-up of each show I went to. I really thought this was just going to be a personal practice but a lot of people have resonated with its format and engage with the work now. Several of the artists I’ve written bios for first reached out after reading my blog, as well as a few editors I have now gotten to write for.

What is your least favorite part of your job? Dumb people. The weird barred-out state people enter in a health food shop. Watching anyone be mean to their kids/partners/friends when they’re obviously just hangry. Seeing how much the market neighborhood changes during summer weekends. I love open streets but who the fuck are these people and why are they wearing that. I hate feeling like a hater. It feels so bored to be jaded, but I can’t control my feelings. Some people just really don’t know how to act, and for some reason those people are very attracted to spots they can be seen in. A few months ago I saw an ambulance outside with its lights on. An elderly Chinese man was being loaded in — I gathered that he was OK but had fallen over, his family looked nervous. The whole time, this white guy photographer is directing a gaggle of baddies to pose sexy in the strobe of the ambulance.

What do you usually eat during a workday? If I am at the Market, I can order anything off the Deli menu, so I’m eating well. If I don’t eat anything before work, I’m hungry when I get off, and I’ll grab Super Taste or King Dumpling to bring home. If I go straight to teach from the Market I buy two Garuka Bars.

If I am directing, I eat a really good dinner the night before, because no matter how good I feel about a project, I am wrecked nervous on the day. I actually can’t stomach anything beyond a bagel with cream cheese, coffee, and an abundance of Diet Coke.

Usually all is going well and my appetite returns by dinner, but if we’re in the shit I can’t eat until we wrap. Ben is a chef and if he’s off, I am blessed with a beautiful homecooked meal as soon as I return. #chefwife

At home, my eating is totally dependent on the sort of computer work I’m doing. When I have to be editing and working in Premiere, something comes over me. I have usually left this task to the last possible minute because I am a glutton for punishment, and in doing so, I have been reminded I am capable of a blackout-level lock in. I don’t need to pee or drink water or eat for hours on end and the screen and I fuse into one — my repentance for succumbing to procrastination yet again. When I finally export and return to my body, I realize I am ravenous. Sometimes it’s urgent enough I have to book it to my deli 200 feet away and get my highly controversial sandwich of choice (cold roast beef), other times I’ll order Beds Thai and stroll over, coming back into my body. I rarely cook after this sort of episode.

Doing writing work at home is totally different. These are the days I fuel myself the best. This is my first week back in Brooklyn since I quit my job at the Market. Even though I’m still going into cover, most of my work has been at home — writing and pitching and planning. I was away visiting my mum last month. She lives on a farm in Scotland. I picked a bunch of rhubarb and she made jam with my harvest and vanilla bean. I’ve been having that on half of an english muffin, and an egg on the other. Then I work work work type type type until my body tells me to move, at which point I see if it takes me to the roof for a cigarette or the kitchen for a snack. If I go to the kitchen I’ve been into making a mango lassi with kefir.

How do you approach saving? I don’t <3

I’m not reckless with money but I definitely haven’t really been able to save since moving back to the city three years ago. I’m not in any debt, which rocks, but I work a bunch of part-time minimum wage jobs that cover my bills, groceries, and extracurriculars like concerts or a club night. When I go out to eat, I try to go where I can get a friends/service/neighborhood discount.

What’s something you like to spend a little bit more on or buy as a treat? I am the daughter of a baker and the partner of a chef and I spent three years working at Dimes Market, which is to say I love a fancy treat like a fish loves water. In the summer I love bringing Fox’s Family Chips or Desi Flavors Plantain Chips and a Niagara Grape Juice from work to Rockaway. Other Dimes staples include: Dark Maple Syrup, Alphonso Mango Puree, Kettl Sobocha, Church Peanuts, and Danny Bowien’s kimchi.

I fuck with Elbow heavy too; their EB BB sandwich, comprised of dates, cream cheese, and walnut butter, is my favorite luxurious treat, and I love their Cherry Drink made with Tart Vinegar.

What do you look forward to on days off? Listening, cooking, writing, and being alone. My workdays are inherently social, and when they’re not I always make sure to plan to see someone afterwards, because I can’t get out of work brain without that. My days off are the only days I really sit with myself. I want to sit with myself more. That’s a goal. I saw that Sartre quote recently, “If you are lonely when you are alone, you are in bad company,” and it randomly rocked me. So yeah, on my days off I look forward to embracing the discomfort of solitude and becoming better company for myself.