It
was the sixteenth place I dropped my CV. I even waited 2 hours to meet the MD
who never showed up. I wasn’t completely desperate yet, so I decided to return
home. No longer had I reached, my cell rang with an unknown number. The MD
wanted to talk, next I heard was a soft and confident female voice. It took me
a while to figure out that I was being asked to join without any interview.
Finally, a month of idleness would end. I was proud much to the fact that it
didn’t involve any form of nepotism. This restored my faith in fair
recruitment.
Getting
back to the main topic, it was a sunny Sunday for me although the weather would
disagree. I was ready for my first day at office. I set off in jeans, Tee and a
pair of converse. For someone with a reputation of strictly not being punctual,
it was a big thing to reach 15 minutes earlier. I was asked to meet a senior
engineer who happened to be late. So, after waiting half an hour outside the
gate, I was escorted in and introduced to other staffs. Many faces were
familiar; the 2 hours wait the previous day was long enough to print some faces
in my memory.
The
office looked ordinary to say the least. I was temporarily given a computer
which I managed to hang several times before realizing that I should open one
file at a time to avoid potential mess. I was seated next to two ladies who
never bothered to care what the new staff was going through. May be they were not
in their own world; probably they were giving me some space amidst the
awkwardness. It seemed to take a long time before the office broke for lunch, a
much needed one for me. There were five of us sharing the table. I ordered what
everyone else were having and it was Noodles. Until that time, I was on a
No-Wheat diet for more than 2 months. Before food got ready, there were several
uninteresting conversations about Batman, Superman and Mahabharat. For obvious
reasons, my ears had to work more than my mouth. After the food got served,
there was a pin drop silence. The other four ate as if they had never tasted
anything more delicious. Funny that I could not finish everything, it was far
from tasty for me.
We
marched towards the junction – a temple at five minutes’ walk. Thanks to Rishi
Dhamala, mocking him evoked laughter and fun for the first time in the day.
With further conversations, I came to know that I was offered job as someone
else was in the verge of leaving in quest of better opportunities. It was half
past two and everyone walked together to the office to resume work. Things were
going smooth when suddenly a girl came rushing towards my seat and stared at me
in dismay. I soon realized that the seat belonged to her. I stood up like a
gentleman, offered her the revolving chair and wandered in confusion. I was
shifted to a different computer beside an old man this time. We chatted
casually in bits and pieces. Meanwhile I was assigned the task of estimation of
a building. To be fair, I was way below par in work rate. Soon the clock hit 5 –
time to disperse. I did not enjoy the day at all, so wasn’t sure I wanted to
continue. Nevertheless, I convinced myself that it can only get better in days
to come.
