It was early in the morning I happened to notice a mail which
asked me to attend for an interview on that day. Unfortunately it was on
Friday, laziness covered all over my body. I then shut down the mobile display
and went back to sleep.
It was 6:00 in the morning my daily wake up call began to ring
as loud as it can. I turned off the alarm and sat up on my bed. I had two
options. One was to go to office and the other was to attend the interview. As
the saying goes, never miss any opportunity for some day it might make you to
reach your destiny. Keeping this in mind, I started thinking that I should take
a leave and attend the interview as I strongly felt that God has written
something for me in bringing up that opportunity. But our project resembles a hot
pan and I had already taken enough unplanned leaves. This leave would add onto
the list and also a big escalation. I wanted to share one funny incident in my
project. When I was sick and took leave for two days not consecutively though,
one of the not-on-papers lead had asked my team lead to escalate on me for
taking sick leaves. I happened to know about this later. LOL, escalations on
sick leaves! People like those made that project look even more hectic. If
associates are not well groomed, this is what happens. You can find many such
strange creatures alive in IT industry. The day they realize that we are not
doing the blue-collar jobs here is the day that never comes!
Keeping these aside, a win-win thought struck my mind and
within no time I made the decision. The decision to fulfill both the options I
had. Attending the interview first and then going to office. The latter depends
on my performance on the former. I then texted my team lead that I will be
coming to office post lunch expecting that my interview would be finished by
that time.
I stood up from my bed and started preparing for the interview
although it's for a little while as I didn't have enough time. My mom prepared
breakfast and she added the essential ingredients like love, care and encouragement
which made me a bit more confident and courageous to face the interview. My
mother is my lucky charm, I should say this. With her blessings I started from
home heading to the place of interview.
I reported at the interview office on time and met my fellow
peers who also came for attending the interview. As I had to travel so much to
attend the interview, my stomach started hinting me to give some food. I made
hard excuses as my determination to attend the interview first was beyond
anything for me at that moment.
The interview panel arrived at 10:30 a.m. and started the
interviews. Fortunately my turn has arrived in the first half an hour. I
happened to notice the same guy who interviewed me the last time and rejected
me came all over again. I thought he would screw me even this time as my
previous experience with him was bad and there were not many questions he posed
at me. I wondered how could he reject me like that.
It was about four months back we both were destined to meet for
the first time in an MNC company with him as the interviewer and me the
interviewee. And now the destiny had made us shook hands for the second time,
of course during the interview. I prayed silently to God that the interviewer
should not remember me and our first meeting. But God was so busy that he
ignored my prayers and wrote something on my forehead that made my day. “I have
given you the pain the last time to present you something bigger this time. All
the best, YOU CAN DO IT”.
I was so nervous and biting my nails so as to relieve my
uneasiness. The interviewer called out my name from inside the interview room
and I looked anxiously both sides of me hoping there would be someone with the
same name and it wouldn't be me whom the interviewer called out. Unluckily no one
stood up and apparently it was my name the interviewer called out twice as if
he remembered my name in the last meet. “I had to go”, I said to myself and
went inside the interview room.
The first question the interviewer asked me as soon as I
entered the interview hall was the most expected one. “Did you attend the
interview four months back?” I couldn't find any reason to say ‘No’ as it might
spoil what's gonna happen next. I had decided to be honest and accept whatever
that might come my way. I said 'yes’ without giving a second thought about it.
His response made me look surprised first, a bit more confident next.
The interviewer said, “you were not rejected the last time and
there was some miscommunication happened. The position we were hiring for the
last time doesn't suit your profile. So we have kept your profile on hold with
a status as ‘Evaluation in progress’ in our job portal. Now the position suits
your profile and so you got a call asking to attend the interview. Otherwise
how would you expect our company to allow you to attend the interview for the
second time within a time span of less than six months?”
I haven't expected this at least in my dream. His words gave me
a pat on my back. At that moment I felt I could face anything with the positive
energy he had given me. The interview went fine and I have not felt as if I’m
attending the interview. I don't say that he had asked easy questions but the
level of confidence and honesty in my answers made him feel good about me. It
was more of a friendly conversation and he almost confirmed my selection in the
interview.
While I was waiting for my result I received a text message
from my team lead. “Come as early as possible”. Then I remembered I had to go
to my workplace as my first task to attend the interview got completed by lunch
time. Meanwhile, the HR came towards me and informed me that I was selected and
they would call me to action on the further steps. I was extremely happy and
couldn't control my joyfulness. I took out my mobile phone and called my lucky
charm and expressed my happiness. “Thanks mom, with all your love and support
today I proudly say that I’m no more a jobless and lazy lad. From now, you
don't need to feel uneasy at those social gatherings where purposefully people
point at me and ask you what your son is doing”, I remember saying this to my
mom three years back when I landed with my first job in an MNC as a fresher.
Yeah, it took more than three years for me to switch the company.
With all the positive energy filled all over my body I took out
my bike keys and started heading towards my office which was at the height of
10 floors where I had to sit and work for some odd hours. It was a bit hot as I
reached office by noon. I got freshened up a little and entered inside my workplace.
A few of my colleagues gave me a weird look as I was wearing formals on a
Friday, the day we are actually privileged to wear ‘Business casuals’. We
strike off business in ‘business casuals’ though. Although no one questioned
me, my team members understood that I had given an interview on that day. My
choice of formals on that day says it all.
I started my work after finishing my lunch with my lunch team.
My lunch team is quite special. We work for different projects and almost
comprises of similar age group which is the main reason for lots of fun we
usually have. We spend almost half an hour daily after having lunch for the fun
times together. Everyone targets one special person in the group whom we call
as COMPLAINT BOX. She almost complains about everything. That's why we renamed
her as Complaint Box. There's one person who always comes late for lunch but
finishes as quickly as possible. Boozing is the only good habit he has.
Whenever our COMPLAINT BOX observes a change in his face(may or may not be
because of boozing the last night), she starts complaining. She can go to any
extent when complaining is concerned. There comes two sweet-lovers in the group
one being myself and the other a volley ball champion. Whenever someone in our
gang brings sweets, they should keep our share aside. We also have the titles
being the ‘late eaters’ among all but we condemn saying that we swallow food
only after proper crunching by white natural grinders God has gifted all of us.
Lastly, I introduce the man who speaks to the point. He is the most honest and
straightforward person I’ve ever seen until now. There's lot to learn from him.
He's a man of morals. We as a group feel lucky to have a colleague as a friend
like him. I wonder how I forget to mention about one of the key member in our
group. I might have missed her just because of her size. She waits for us in
the downstairs almost everyday for lunch. She always makes us smile with her
cute expressions and unintentionally mapped together local language words.
As soon as our gang finished our lunch break which lasts for an
hour or so, I came back to my desk and started working. Maybe because of the
interview result, I felt very happy that day and with full of energy I finished
my work slowly and steadily. When I just finished my work, I could see nobody
around working in my team.
I started from office on the bike. It was full of wind and I
thought I could go against it with the positive energy that was filled into my
nerves that day. But slowly, rain began to hit me harder and harder. I still
didn't stop the vehicle. Here came the tragedy in my story. Suddenly my bike
started giving me the trouble which I had expected the least. I had to tow it
in that heavy rain. I have tried my best to troubleshoot the problem but
everything resulted in futile attempts. With the rain showing its power, I had
nothing to do except to surrender to it.
After some distance, my bike began to function and I felt
relaxed a bit. Feeling relaxed about the condition of my bike, I began searching
for something to eat as it was too late and all my energy went in towing the
bike. I saw a Dosa point where the menu card titled “99 varieties of Dosa”
attracted me. I then looked out for money in my wallet. To my surprise there is
only a ten rupee note and debit/credit cards. The rate card showed a minimum
Dosa price of fifty rupees. I noticed that there was no swipe machine to swipe
my debit/credit card. I then asked the shopkeeper if there was any ATM centre
nearby. He showed me one for which I have to cross the road and my bike began
to irritate me again. I parked my bike aside and went there by walk. It was
full of rain and I couldn't resist going to that place as my stomach was
anticipating food intake very badly.
I went to the ATM centre and found out that the ATM wasn't in
working condition. In some distance, there was another ATM as directed by
people out there. I thanked each and everyone for the directions. ‘One should
thank people when they stop by and give out the right directions despite the
situation they are into’, my conscience said.
I found the second ATM centre well equipped with
air-conditioned facility and a security guard. The ATM machine had a wonderful
feature of dispensing ‘zero money’ irrespective of how much ever money you
keyed in. I enquired the security guard about it. He said that it was almost 3
hours the cash was over and the cash van was stuck in the heavy traffic due to
unexpected rain.
I left the place and went back to the ‘99 varieties’ Dosa
point. I literally felt like BEGGING someone for money showing my Company
Identity card so that I could return them the next day. But my ego as a
Software Engineer did not allow me to do so. I found a small shop nearby and
utilized the ten rupee note in my pocket to buy some biscuits and then fulfill
my hunger at least for some time.
In our society, working as a Software Engineer is considered
one of the most privileged job. But it made us become lazy and store all our
earnings in Online Bank accounts and Debit/credit cards instead of the Physical
money. Not to forget the Sodexo coupons which helps us in tax savings. Out of
my experiences, I advise carrying a minimum amount is not gonna hurt you. In
other words, it helps when you need it the most. So I conclude, a software engineer
begs!*
_________________________________________________________________________________
*When all the ATMs are shut down for a week and where there is
no acceptance of Debit/Credit cards for swipe.
