Hebbagodi Chronicle

As in most of the stories where one fights against odds, everyone extends his help to the limit they can and after a lot of bad happenings we know that finally all of this is going to be all right The Story had its work done, it succeeded in keeping you in illusion that the world is greener than it is. But what you are going to read is frustrating tale. of failures. It doesn't always happen in the way you know it should.

Prologue: It was final semester of final year, we (Friends and I) were placed. Every one had plans to try for off-campus, just in case they might get a better job but no one was doing it in action. April 27, 2007 was the day when after five months of confirmation of my job at Tavant Technologies, Bangalore, they send a mail to all of those who were selected by the company, saying joining will be in December 2007. (That means you are unemployed for next six months, no compensation, no experience.)

We did everything that we could to prepone the joining date, but nothing happened. With a lot of hope and expectation we left Kharagpur to Bangalore to live at a place named Hebbagodi with Nihar, GP and Pankaj. It was like going home.

I thought it would be better to have few rules for lucid going in Bangalore:
Rule#1: I would have no opinion. Perhaps It's the time to listen.
Rule#2: Do no evil.
Rule#3: No more 'No' for few days . Let's see how all 'Yes' works.

Day#0 - Day#1: (May 26, 2007) Quite odd. 'Are they same wing-mates who I knew a year before?' was the first question. Yes, they are the same good and loving. 'But Am I?'

Day#2: Apurv and I walked some three KMs to find a slow net connectivity cyber cafe with 'god knows how working' computers. Registered to all available job sites, forums and groups.

Day#3: Sterling Commerce Test. We just under estimated it. Blown it happily as if we were going to get such chances in plenty. huh!

Day#4: Took Bus to go to same cyber cafe. Very enthusiastic with the hope of call from few dozens of companies for test, if not interview. Hundeds of mails. Opened curiously just to find all of them were crap. Cold ran through my spine. Did we miss the best chance.

Day#5: Took Bus to cyber cafe. wishing to get few calls. Returned frustrated.

Day#6 to Day#15: Realized the mistake of taking test lightly. Apurv had started smoking three cigarettes a day. I was on my knees.

Day#10: Met HR Tavant technologies, Mr. Ashish Thomas Sam. Requested. Requested again and again; and eventually it started look like begging. Ashish said not a word that could give me a single ray of hope and things went below dignity when we found that there was a minority in selected ones who would be joining the company in some 25 days.

I decided not to join the company at the spot. I can't live in a company that selects people based on same criterion (same test, GD and 2 rounds of interview) and doesn't treat them equally. It is not meritocracy. Go to Hell!

Day#16 to day# 21: Standard Chartered. They were needed brains with fresh ideas for the post of "thought leaders". I liked the idea. I love thinking alternates and untouched. Three rounds of interview. Then they lost contact, with me and with the HR consultancy. Hopeless again. One more nail to coffin. Started calling HRs directly, only to find all they need is 2+ yrs of experience market is full with freshers.

Prepared core Java by heart. Read and experimented with JDBC, Servlet, JSP, JBeans, RMI, Swing, Collections. Re-re-read C++. Re-re-re-..-read C. Cleared all doubts in RDBMS, OOP, DOM. And familiarize with Eclipse.

Day#22 - Day#30: Took Subex Azure test with thousands other. Result wasn't disclosed until next 40 days, waiting only to know that I have a face to face interview with them in Bangalore when I had return back home. Sad.

Day#31: OnMobile. It had become dream company now. We were flat on the floor with our nose constantly digging the ground at every breadth we were taking. Failed again! No excuse this time. I was a failure.

This day I have lost my motive to continue fighting. I was missing home more than ever in my life. Wanted to exit or perhaps, to shave every single hair on my body.

I became uninterested. Very much ready to join Tavant in December or IBM Bhubaneswar before December.

Day#32 to Day#47: I was out of my mind. Started re-calling HRs. And calling new ones and mailing and re-mailing. Apurv started smoking 4 cigarettes a day.

Telephonic interview with One-I systems, they would call me a week later.

Day#48: Apurv got places in a start-up Einstix. I was an orphan now. Pity Kitty.

Day#49: Probably, no-one knows it better than Nihar (except me) what was going on my mind.

Day#50-Day#60: Calling, mailing, walking, watching clouds, missing mom. Uninterested. Waking up and sleeping, just because everyone around me and everyone not around me were so caring that these things were essential.

Telephonic interview with One-I systems' client Intedo Corp(USA)'s co-founder, they would contact me later.

Day#61: GE interview for a Mechanical Engineer cum Java developer was so much matching with my profile that after telephonic interview they called me for face to face interview. Interview was more than excellent. I was knowing more than they were asking. Hoping animmediate offer. No Luck.

Day#62: Accepted my fate. Would go back. Fight is over. I lost. "Will be back home as soon as possible" I kept chanting.

Day#63 - Day#66: Kept my 'go back' idea secret.

Day#67 (August 1, 2007): Usually, at this point, stories has a words like 'happy' and 'winning'. This story would take just half of it - 'I was tired and happy.'

Epilogue: After reaching home I was happy but not calm. Seven days later I've got call from One-I that they hired me. I kept this news secret from everyone other than my family. I didn't care about people who were so close and so helpful in the worst time of my life - my wing-mates and my friends, they are as close to my heart as my family. I should have told them and end their misery at least ten days earlier, but I am an idiot. Or probably cold. I don't know. Now, my name is commonly used in place of selfish.
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Author: Nishant Neeraj. Free to quote.

Disclaimer: Writer is a free thinker and the script is his personal view.

Genre: Real story based, Drama, Documentary, IIT Kharagpur
Type: Personal View
Language: English
Category: For ALL age group
Place and Time: Chennai, One-I. September 2, 2007