THE SECOND COMPANY...
The week following Pragyan rolled by uneventfully (often confused with "peacefully")..& with "The World is Flat" getting pretty dull after the chapters on the "The Ten Flatteners of the Modern World"..(Well...what else could I expect from a guy who declared that the world was flat..& was in fact rejoicing at his preposterous claim..?!?! :O)..I turned to the Inheritance trilogy with "Eragon" & "Eldest" proving to be the closest new read which came to having me hooked to it since the harry potter series...(Hail Argetlam.!!!)
On 5th Feb...I got a mail from a guy in Technip Abu Dhabi saying that he had received my CV from our coll's placement dept. & was very impressed with my credentials & "wanted me on board" their group...after a telephonic interview.
Hmmmm....flattering indeed...but was it again gonna deceive to leave me with nothing to smile about..??
The telephonic interview was eventually scheduled for 11 AM on Sunday, 11th Feb....which was further confirmed by a call from the guy who eventually took my interview...
A frantic search of all petroleum-related books began on esnips ( why was it that a lot of stuff that i "studied" during the 5th sem were startin to make sense only now..??).
The telephonic interview was taken by the same guy who had mailed & called me earlier & this is what happened...
Me: Good morning sir..
Him : Goodmorning Shubhankar...how are u doing..??
Me : Blah-blah (Hmmm...actually I dint blah all that much...just told him I was doing gr8)
Him: So...howz the weather there..??
Me: ummmm....Its pleasantly warm out here (Ya rite...lets take a walk in the park...duhh..!!!)
Him :Oh then it must be a great place...!!!
(Yup...this place is great...when I came I was told it hadnt rained for 2 years...next year we get cyclonic rains in May when it was supposed to be dry..we then had your usual-next-door Tsunami...& the year after that..it rained so much that trains & buses were closed to & from Trichy...yup..Couldnt have imagined anything better..!!)
Him :I am very impressed with your CV...especially your academics...
Me :Thank u sir....blah-blah......& that is why/how I manage to get good grades inspite of hardly spending anytime studying...
Him:( Sounding like this was a first for him) Ohhh..!!! Thats very impressive...!!! Hmmm...so u got AIR 665 in AIEEE...then why did u choose chemical engg..???
Me: blah-blah...
Him : Oh very good..!!! (Arey sab kuch ke liye "very good" kyun kar raha hai maamu..!?!?)
Him :So...whats the objective of applying to our company..??
Me : (aise ich yaar...socha tere saath thodi long-distance timepass karloon...!! :D) blah-blah...
Him : Thats very nice...are u sure she only told u good things about us & nothing bad..???
Me :Yes sir..(ab phir se poochega tho mein tujhe confuse kar dunga..!!)
Him : Good...so lets start off with some technical questions now..Whats your favourite subject..??
Me: Petroleum engg sir..(Plz....dont fail me now...pretty please..!!!)
Him: ahaan...what in petroleum engg..??
Me : blah-blah....
Him: But what about Fluid Mechanics, Thermodynamics & Heat Transfer...arent u confident in those subjects..???
Me: Yes sir I am (shit..!!! should have read those..!!!!)
Him: Fine then we shall discuss those for the time being..
( Great...just great...the 2nd time in successive interviews that my choice of fav subject has been made redundant...)
Him : Ok...So i have a natural gas & water-vapour mixture whose critical temp is.....blah-blah...
Me :(After a gr8 deal of arbit farting around with half-correct & sometimes absurd guesses) Sorry sir...I dont know this...
Him :What..?? You donno this..?!?! This is supposed to be a very important concept in thermodynamics...!!!!!
Me : Errrr....Hmmm... (Yes...!!! Maine pehle question me hi apni m** c**dwa li..!!!)
Him :Ok take that as homework...lets have another question now.....
(And then followed a series of high-funda technical questions on hands-on application...I surprised myself by answering most of em correctly to which my interviewer would promptly respond with "Excellent..!!! Very good indeed..!!" & a couple or so where i gave half-correct answers to which he would ask me to note it down as "homework"....& probably for the first time I felt that I wasnt perhaps doing injustice to that CGPA of 9.43 which rested proudly on my CV..)
Him :(After about 40 mins of questions...) Hmmmm...I can go on like this with more questions...But that will be enough...I am satisfied.
Me : Hmmmm...( Satisfied boletho..?? :-| )
Him: How do u think u performed in the interview..??
Me: I think I could have done better..But nevertheless, I think I have done fairly well...
Him : So do u think u will be selected..??
Me : I hope I am selected sir (With as much earnest anticipation I could salvage in my voice)
Him : Ok, I will be honest with you...You have been shortlisted..!!!!
Me : (What..!?!? Thats it..!! OMG..!!!) Ohhh..!! Thank you sir..Thank u so much..!!
Him : Wait...I just said you are shortlisted...this aint a final confirmation...
Me : ( WTF..!?!? Dont temme I have to "wait" through this too..!!!) Hmmm...
Him : I still need to interview 3-4 more students in IITX & so I cant finalize the results right now...
Me: Is there any area of mine you think I need to work on..??
Him : No no...I am very impressed..You are just fine...The fact that you are only the 2nd person shortlisted after I interviewed about 12 across diff colleges shud tell u that....& I think most probably u will be getting the offer from us too...
Me : (Hmmmm....Now this sounds promising...) Hmmmm...Thank you sir.!!!!
Him : And you should def think about joining us & not BPCL...as you already know...the pay is very flattering...Abu dhabi is a great city...95% of the people here are indians...our work-culture is gr8..the work is...blah-blah....
Me: (arey bhai mujhe maloom hai...apna sapna tho money money hai..!! :P ) Yes sir..I certainly shall...thank u very much...
Him : Right....then that shall be all Shubhankar...thank u very much...
& So...that was that...& hey..I had never felt so good after any interview yet.. & boy oh boy..I had to wait it out for the results for this one too...wait..wait...wait...
With the interview done...a week of arbit cycle tests beckoned...with my schedule unchanged as always...after all...I dont have time to spare from my "busy" schedule for lesser events like cycle tests..but then again...being the "studious, hardworking & sincere" student that I am...I managed to "devote" 30 mins-1 hour for ever exam just before the scheduled time...(Which again made me wonder why I had been doing night-outs till the 5th sem when just an hour gave me the same grades...!!!)
And then...it happened...on 19th Feb... I got a mail from the HR of Technip...& it said...."Welcome to Technip Abu Dhabi..!!!!!"
Finally....it had happened...No more was I just so near & yet so far from where I wanted to be & what I wanted to acheive....No more was I to be the subject of commiseration..& No more am I the man who "could have" or "should have"...
& to all those d**kheads whose only ambition in life has been to belittle what I am capable of & to screw their way into my life...I have nothing to say to you...But with deep reverence...I shall just ask you to "GO FUCK YOURSELF...!!!!!"
The sense of happiness that engulfed me thereafter was... as divine as Shreya Goshal's voice,...as poignant as Adnan Sami's "Tera Chehra"...as pleasurably intense as the realization of one's first love must be... as completely overwhelming as the fulfillment of Darcy & Elizabeth's love for each other in Pride & Prejudice...and as unforgettable as any of the myriad climaxes of Shahrukh Khan's love sagas...
Was I ever heard complaining about my college...???? How could I have been so unfair...????
So what if my college was located 20 kms from any reasonably established civilization..?? (OMG....& I am not supposed to complain for that..!?!? :O )
So what if my college had 90% males & 10% "non-males" (officially listed along with the much rarer species of "females")..??? A couple of them had still proven to be much more reliable pals than some of the b*****ds around...
So what if the food in my college mess sucked ass & was so bad that even dogs refused to eat it..?? It was still made outta our anna's hardwork & sweat (Hmmmm...wonder how much more of their sweat they would need to put in until it can serve as a substitute for salt)
& then....where else could a guy keep cribbing about the opportunities that should have been his...& yet end up with the world at his feet..?? Yes...this could be no Deja Vu...I havent seen heaven yet...I am on the heaven on earth...NIT Trichy..!!! :-)
& GOD....even though I continue to refuse to acknowledge Your existence... I am forced to admit that much of what has transpired conspicuously suggests divine intervention...I shall no longer complain about Your decision to keep me outta ITC & keep me waiting in Schlumberger...coz I now have every reason to believe that is what facilitated my achieving something much bigger. I now know that you have kept me aside for very big things far beyond what I may begin to comprehend as of now...All i have to say to be honoured with this privilege is.."Thank you GOD..!!" :-)
And I give You my word...that from now...whenever hardships present themselves...I shall not grimace with the thought that my existence has been god-forsaken...But welcome them with my winsome smile & rejoice that You have considered me worthy of being tested by Your time & patience...
& that...O Lord..Shall be my humble gift to You for all that You have bestowed upon me & allowed me to acheive...
~~~~~~~~~~~~The End~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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