The Interview

His hands were sweating again. The interview phobia had started acting up again: it always kicked in just five minutes before the interview. He pulled out his handkerchief, tried to wipe his hands dry, but that only aggravated the sweating. He thought of using some powder, but wasn't sure if he had the time.

Suddenly, he heard his name called. Nope, no time for powder. He got up instantly, fumbled with his file and handkerchief, tried to get a hold on both, and in the process, dropped them both.

"Shit - shit - SHIT!", he mumbled as his name was called out again. Quickly grabbing the file and its content, he rushed forward.

"Yes sir! That would be me."

The receptionist glanced at him, and pointed him to a room.

He started getting more nervous. More sweating, more weird thoughts, more fumbling. In fact, his hands were so sweaty by now, that he felt that he could provide enough water to Ganges to keep it running for another thousand years.

"NO, NO, NO! No weird thoughts please! Job interview, yes, rush!"

Somehow he managed to enter the room, and glanced at the table. He saw one person waiting for him. A wave of relief swept over him. Till now, it had always been a panel of three or more. One person was definitely more manageable.

He sat on the empty chair. It felt cold.

"So, your resume only mentions a low cpi, no extra curriculars, and no project at all."

"Yes sir."

"Care to offer an explanation?"

"No Sir."

"Really?"

"Yes sir." The sweating had started more profusely than ever before. Now, his head showed beads of sweat. He needed to handle this. It was his last chance to land a job. 

"Care to venture out of the room?"

"No Sir" 

"What? I am not requesting you, I am ordering you" 

"No Sir.. I mean.. yes sir.. I mean I thought you wanted my opinion on whether to stay or go out. Sir, Sir, please dont kick me out sir... I am good sir. I am good at lot of things." He had to bluff. If now, then never. 

"Ok, what are you good at?"

"Sir..sir..I am good at blowing up labs." He blurted out.

"What?!?!?!!" 

"Yes sir, I've done it four times, once in each of the four years I've been here. All times the chemical laboratory."

"How? How did you manage to do that? What did you mix?"

"Sir, I thought I was mixing NaOH and HCl."

"And what were you actually mixing?"

"Sir, they never found out!! You know, everything was a mess. Next time, I was mixing...". He found his courage back, but was cut off. 

"Never mind. Is there something that you are good at and we can use at our organization?" 

"Sir, you are a telecom company. You know, I can imitate different voices. Sir, Sir, I am a record holder for maximum number of proxies in a class. I put proxy for 20 students in one class. All in different voices. I even put proxy for a girl there sir." On a roll, he thought. Never had he lasted so long in the interview. 

"No, no dear. You are getting it all wrong. Let me test your knowledge. Do you have in-depth knowledge of anything? Anything at all?" 

"Sir, I watch a lot of movies."

"Oh really. I do too. Tell me, how many movies have you watched out of imdb top 100?"

<Shhitt. Who said anything about english movies? I meant hindi movies. No No No. What should I do? What should I do? Bluff it out?>

"Sir, most of them, sir!" He cried.

"I like 12 Angry Men a lot. What about you?"

<12 Angry men? IMDB top 100? Must be an oscar winner? Let me try my luck.>

"Yes sir! Brilliant movie. It even got oscars!!"

"Yes yes. Good good, we have some talking point!"

"Yes sir. What angriness sir. And the fight scenes among the angry men sir, brilliant sir. Never seen such fighting scenes. Beats the angry young man of our film industry, I mean the senior Bachchan!" 

"What? Oh! You must be talking about the discussion sequences. Right right! And what about seven? Did you like that too?"

"Yes sir. Seven angry men was even better! I have seen the whole series. Right from number one angry man to the 12 angry men! And I like 12th and 7th the most." 

"Umm.. any other movie that you would like to talk about? What about Forrest Gump?"

"Lovely sweet animal Sir, the Gump. And the forest, oh! Breathtaking! I am telling you sir, if that movie was made now, in terms of picturization and visualization, it'd make life of pi look puny!"

"Oh really?"

"Yes sir, totally. In fact, if you bring the monkey from the life of pi in the Forest gump, that would be a story worth telling!"

"Yeah, that WOULD be hell of a story!"


"Yes sir." He noticed that his hands were no longer sweating. 

"Well, I think that's it for now. We will get back to you soon."

"Sure sir. Thank you sir. You are the best interviewer till date!"

He had a good handshake, and he walked out. He felt that he had finally overcome his phobia. One good interview was all it took!

The girl at the Cafe

She was sitting with her legs crossed, wearing a white frock that touched her knees. Her round hat, with a tiny bow at the side, perfectly complemented the dress. Her eyes were immersed in a book, and she was sipping a cold coffee in the hot afternoon.

He had been looking at her for quite some time now. He wanted to go and talk to her, but his past 16 attempts to talk to a girl hadn't been quite successful. 

<May be 17th would be a charm.> He got up and walked up to her.

"Can I take this seat please?", he asked.

She looked around, making it obvious that there were so many empty tables in the cafe. <Why does he want to sit near me? He isn't even hot. Or sexy for that matter. For god's sake, she could see a bulge around his tummy.>

He observed her glance around the not-so-filled cafe. <It is not going to work this way. Let me try to be firm.>

"Oh! I thought I would just disturb you". He smiled weakly and pulled out the empty chair to sit.

She looked at him with some restraint. <Oooh. Confidence? Or pretending confidence? She was never the best judge at reading people.>

"Well, I noticed that you are reading a book."

She glanced at the book in her hand and again shot an irritated look at him. <Wow! What an observation! Son of Sherlock I guess?>

"Umm.. I mean..You know.. Its my favourite book.".

<Why dont you tell me the suspense, and save me the trouble of reading the book?>

"I read it when I was eight years old."

<What?! He has been reading since he was eight? :O :O>

He caught the slight movement in which her eyeballs had enlarged, and then contracted back. <There, just there!>

"Ya, I've been quite into studies in my life. I topped straight through all my grades at school, AND through all my university courses. I had read all the books in my library, in fact the principal had to order more books for me." He ended it with a wide grin.

It turned to an apologetic one as soon as he saw her.

She was glaring at him like never before. <He is a nerd. I've heard nerds are not so good at asking a girl out. But seriously, is he worth giving a chance? >

He thought it was time to wrap it up. He started getting up. 

<May be one more chance.>

She snapped her fingers. He looked at her. Her eyes signaled him towards the chair. He quietly sat down again.

Then he noticed her earphones; followed them to find an iPod hidden by the view of the book. Instinctively, he went for it. 

"Oh my! I love music too."

As he scrolled down the song list, there was a slight pang of disappointment. 

"Oh, I primarily like the Kumar kishore and Rafi's songs. And these are all, new hip hop generation. I dont know whats wrong with this generation and their lyrics!"

He raised his head to see her reaction, and saw the angry face again. She was about to burst out. 

<How could he take the iPod without any permission?>

Slowly, and carefully, he placed the iPod back in its position, as it was, hidden by the view of the book. 

<So now he is trying to be all cute, eh? Well, I have to admit it, he is kinda cute! >

"So, do you talk ...?"

He was suddenly interrupted by a loud voice. 

"Hey girl! I am all set!", her friend said, as she tapped her shoulder, "Oh! You have my iPod? I was looking for it all over!!"

He was overjoyed. <That's her friends iPod!! May be, just may be, we share the same taste in music too?> 


It was her friend's turn to look at him.

"Oh! I am sorry, I dont want to be rude or anyething, but she is on a permanent mute, I mean, she cant speak! Hope she didn't cause you any trouble!" 

He was dumbstruck. He didn't know what to make of it. 

As they left the table, she twisted towards him, gave him a short smile and a wink. Then, her eyes pointed to something on table. 

There was a napkin. With her number on it. 

"I can't speak, but I sure can text. Message me? :)"

His heart skipped a beat. 

17th time was indeed a charm.  

The Tortoise and The Zebra

ToTo, the tortoise, and Jhabru, the zebra, went for a walk one fine day. They are known to be best friends.

ToTo: It's a wonderful evening! Ain't it?

Jhabru: Maybe. Mind if I ask you a question? 

ToTo: Ha Ha. I know that you are a collector of questions. You ask me questions, I answer them and then you come up with more! But then, can I take away the pleasure of asking questions from you? I can't.

Jhabru: My dear friend, you are so wise, that I suspect that one day, you will have answered all my questions. But for now, tell me, why do you call it a wonderful evening?

ToTo: Oh, a question to which I have an answer! It drizzled a couple of hours ago, the wind is fresh and the leaves are rustling. I find each of these is a factor in my conclusion of this being a wonderful evening. 

Jhabru: Ah! I can see that you are describing some external factors here, and hence your answer puts me in deep thought. Tell me my friend, would you still find this evening wonderful, assuming that you had quarrelled with me yesterday?

ToTo: Horrors! You speak of horrors in your last sentence - first, you call me friend, and then you talk about a quarrel between us! May God bless us, and such a day never occur. 

ToTo: However, to answer your question, let me assume that some misfortune did fall upon us, and as you say, we quarrelled? Would I still find the evening wonderful? I'd say it depends on the perspective from which I am looking at it. 

Jhabru: Well, there can always be two sides to look at the same situation. Enlighten me with the perspectives. 

ToTo: The first perspective is obvious. I quarrel with you, I look out through my window, see the drizzle, hear the leaves rustle, yet, be grumpy about it and choose to ignore it. I keep thinking about our quarrel, why I was right and you were wrong, and how could I get my message across to you. This will result in sadness.

Jhabru: And which is the other perspective, by which you could enjoy this evening?

ToTo: Isn't it obvious? I first see it is a wonderful evening. I notice the fresh air, I then notice your absence. Think about our yesterday's quarrel. Think about it from the fresh perspective, and try to listen to the message that you were trying to send across. Understand what is dear to you, and then, walk out to meet and greet you. Don't you see, the fresh wind gave me a fresh perspective?

Jhabru: Well, well. O wise Toto, your argument somehow reminds me of a comic strip, in which a boy and a tiger stand beneath a star studded sky, and the boy says, "If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I’ll bet they’d live a lot differently".

ToTo: I think I know the one you are talking about. Six out of seven days, the tiger's stripes look just like yours! In some places, I'd have placed a huge bet that it was you, and not the tiger, if I had not seen all his pictures.

Jhabru: Yeah, that is the one. But, tell me, why don't people look at the stars or smell the fresh air everyday?

ToTo: Ha ha! Your questions will never end, Jhabru. God willing, we shall find an answer to all of them sooner or later. For now, give me a ride on your back, and we'll be home in time for a nice hot soup on this wonderful evening!

Learnings.

"Your dad had studied in this school." - Mom said, standing outside the examination center.

 ----
It was the first paper out of the three papers scheduled on that day. There was an unexpected format change. Till last year, candidates had been given empty notebooks to write the answers (that allows you a sort of freedom to attempt and reattempt the questions, if you get them wrong in the first go).

Not this year. We were provided with a booklet containing 12 pages. Each page had a question written at the top, and we were supposed to answer the questions in one shot. A shiver ran up my spine. I was not in the habit of answering questions in one go. I needed my reattempts to get an answer correct.

I looked at each and every question, trying to find a simple question that I could answer at one go. Not one question seemed to match the requirement, and each and every question seemed to have some trick involved in it. Sweat broke across my face, and I couldn't move my hand for a long time. Eventually, I tried to attempt a question or two, but couldn't scribble beyond two lines, meeting a dead end in both the questions.

I estimated that I had lost around half an hour in my feeble attempts to solve those questions. I stole a quick look at the watch, and then did a double take. The watch told me that I had already spent 1 hour 15 minutes in the exam, and only 45 minutes were left. Fresh sweat broke across my face, and my whole body was drenched in a few seconds.

I realized that I won't be able to clear the exam, at least on that day. But somehow, I was not ready to buckle down. No part of my mind was ready to accept the defeat. I did what my mind told me: "Do one question at a time. Forget about the one page issue. Just solve, we will see what to do if more space is needed."

Next 45 minutes passed in a ziffy. So did the other two papers of that day.

---

One month later, I was queuing up outside an internet cafe, with at least 5 set of parents and children trying to have a look at the results. Something cringed inside my stomach as I hit the submit button, and the five seconds needed by the website to fetch the result seemed like an eternity. And then, there was the result in front of my eyes. I closed my eyes, breathed a sigh of relief, and mumbled a thanks to God. When I opened my eyes, I was probably the happiest that I had felt till that date.

---

In retrospect, whenever I look back at that JEE exam, I think about what could have happened if I had not wasted that hour and fifteen minutes. The reflections have taught me not to be surprised by life's surprises, but to prepare an action item and work on it.

Each and every candidate who has taken that exam, has his or her own learnings from that exam. I believe no other exam could have taught what JEE taught me, and the learning derived from this exam is what makes it special.  Its non-repetitiveness, surprises, application of concepts, tricky questions are unique features, and should be available for future generations to derive their own learnings.

The struggle within.

Everyday, you are hopeful. One good meeting, and life can change.

You get up. Get ready. You try to look your best.

Then you go for meetings. And you get pulled down. Into a spiral with no end.

At the end of the day, you are crushed and broken. To the extent of no will to rise up again.

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Next day is here. And you rise up again. With a determination to succeed. Because, failing is not an option. And you put a smile on your face. 

:D

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This is the life of a startup. :)

Music: Hum hongey kamiyab, EK DIN.

To Today!

PLAY.

Today, I am very happy. Very very happy!

On this day, I have just two things to say:

1. Do what you truly believe in.
2. Do not settle for anything, and I mean, anything, that you think is not the best. Go for the best, till you are satisfied that it is THE BEST.

Yours truly.

p.s. I am saying it again, everyone loves games. Come on, lets PLAY. :D

Sorry

Was the word sorry invented so that you could do (almost) anything wrong and get away with it?