Saturday, August 22, 2009

The day i became a believer..

Was the day everything went wrong..

I am now ready to talk about an incident I have never fully discussed with anyone..

That was the day I went for an interview at IIT Kanpur for admission in their MBA program

How I wish I hadn’t..

What follows is a highly exaggerated account of events of that doomed day.

Believe at your own risk! (Actually I’m too embarrassed to admit that each one of those things actually happened!:P)

Well, the day started off pretty well..( In fact I think it was fabulous when compared to the rest!)

I, with daddy dearest, reached Kanpur Central in the morning.(He still doesn’t let me travel alone!!)X-(

We took an auto and the auto driver seemed to know the what/why/when/where of my visit. IIT is the most happening place in town, you see. Some city!:P

After that the entire day seemed to spiral downwards!

We were supposed to get an accommodation in the visitor’s hostel.

Yes. You guessed it right. No rooms available.

So we were given separate rooms in separate hostels so that we ended up paying double the amount!

No worries!

We could have managed that easily had my father not been a lazy uncle and got his cellphone roaming activated eons ago.

Still ok.

We decided on a time to meet. Next came the sharing of resources. That meant putting the toothpaste on my toothbrush and giving it to him. Cutting the soap into half. We actually took the concept of travelling light too far. But uptil then we managed, I convinced myself. I shouldn’t have ignored my gut!

I had enough time before the interview. While I was waiting I got a call from the organizers that my ‘roomy’ was on the way!!

A roommate?? Hello?? I don’t want one! What if she turns out to be a complete chatterbox. I needed to sleep.

What if she has a better rank than me?

Worse, what if she was prettier than me (which is pretty easy to be)??

Grrrr..

I’ve always been averse to any kind of unnecessary interaction. As my mother puts it, I am anti-social.:P

So now I would have a roommate in this short a stay.

No problem. I can handle it.

Well she came. She seemed friendly and well..lets say..I had no problems with her! :D

But then she asked me of something I couldn’t refuse. She had to do her kriya. Yes, yes..the one they teach you in the Art of Living. That meant I had to leave. Well, OK.

I complied and went on a walk, came back, slept, woke up, got ready for the interview.

Went outside the hostel. Tried to have a look at myself in the glass door and..oh..i fell.

Yes. In front of atleast a dozen people. In my business suit. Before an interview.

L

My dad came running and picked me up!( just the way they show in of those life insurance ads)

I’m OK..it’s OK dad..sigh!

Lets just go..alright?

So off I went.

A presentation. A bus ride to the interview venue. And then a long wait.

So long that the candidates became friends. So long that weather changed outside. So long that we lost interest!

The best part.

I was the last candidate to be interviewed.

The last candidate of the day.

The last candidate of the entire process.

Now, that’s not very encouraging!

Finally my turn. The student volunteers celebrated as the 3 day ordeal came to an end for them. For me, the ordeal had just begun.

Q:How does touchscreen technology work?

A: mumble jumble.

Q: are u never curious about it? (googly)

A: some more mumbling.

Q: so why do u have less marks?

A: well, I didn’t work hard enough. :P (bhaad mein jao)

Q: here’s a question on probability.

A: here is the solution.

Q: are you sure.

A: yes mam.

In the middle of it, a chaabi waala banged onto the door to signal that he now had to close the room.

Well.

That was it.

My interview.

in less than 10 minutes, it was over!


and then i had to get back to the hostel. now the worst part of being the last one was that the bus didn't think it had enough patience to wait for me. so i had to go back. with a senior. sitting on the carrier of a bicycle.(yes, i cannot ride one myself.never learnt it.long story)

And then the journey back to delhi.

Yes, I forgot to mention that while we were all chatting, a very considerate senior told me that the trains had been running late since a couple of days.

I didn’t take notice.

I should have.

Waiting on the railway station for 7 hours wasn’t something I was looking forward to.

But that was it.

The longest day of my life had finally come to an end.

The day I became a believer...in the Murphy’s law!

:D

6 comments:

  1. ha ha ha ha....tat's all i can do after reading this post..it seemed to me like the story of a movie...man its hard to believe these things happened to you in a single day..
    the interview part was d best..(u wre last and it lasted for ten odd minutes :P,and hw the toucch scrcn wrks..ha ha ).so sory but can't stop laughing.nevertheless very well written..highly entertaining..!!

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  2. @ tushki: yes,all of this did happen! now u know the secret to my stupendous success!
    :P
    @ chhavi: :D

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  3. "Anti Social" and you falling was the best part !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete