An Amazing viva....

Some day.... just like that... a cool viva.....

Day: Some day in summer....
Time: The time when people prefer sleep....
Place: an A/c Cabin

Panel: 3 very much experienced people... ready to take my case.... [V, M and R]

Myself: Niranjan Khandekar
(V opens the door and asks me to come in. The other two with a very friendly(!) smile ask me to sit down..... I forget to wish them good afternoon or so....)
[Henceforth N = Myself]

M: So, Niranjan what you liked the most in the course?
N: (as usual confused) As in any particular subject?
M: No; anything in the course.
N: I liked our first 2 assignments of MIS; they involved coding a bit on excel and since me from xxxx I like that... [Honest and sincere attempts to pull them away from mkting to MIS...]
M: You have a work ex?
N: Yes.. xxxxxxx....
M: Ok. Any other thing you liked?
N: (Thinking hard.... actually i didn’t like anything much here except for a few gals... newez..) HRM..
M: Why?
N: The cases were good as in we could relate them..... (cool globaaal)
M: (turning to R) He’s your student..... (wanted to say ‘screw him’ but he didn’t say so explicitly...)
V: Any particular case you could relate to any incidence?
N: (Shittt I had heard V has been quiet today.. even he seems to be on a killing spree... deaththth....) Yes sir... we had a case of marginal performer. He worked pretty well but then got promoted n his performance went down...... In xxxx...they had appointed an experienced guy from xxxxx... he didn’t do much... he was appointed as our project manager.... prolly his job description was not clear or so..... but as our project manager he didn’t perform well
M: Probably he got bad subordinated to work with (and then a cunning smile....)
N: No, our previous project manager was good and very much fine with us...
M: Was she a lady? (All 3 panelists sharing cool smile)
N: No... guy only (keeping face as serious as poss)
M: Ok... see we won’t ask you about HR now cause that’s your area... We will ask you about sales...
N: (I am dead )
M: Suppose you are a salesman of XXX in Goa... North or south whatever.. or whole Goa.... What will you do to increase sales?
N: Salesman ?
M: Ok... Sales manager.... no asst sales manager... what will you do to get the higher sales of HUL?
N: [Gave cool global gyaaan about market research..... ads promotions etc.]
M&R: As a asst sales manager you have that much budget or authority to change ads n all?
N: No, but.... [Again some global]
M: So what will you do?
N: [Again globaaal... ]
M: So, you will give target to sales force and ask management for more funds?
N: [No answer... confused face]
M: That’s a problem you are not doing anything... you are just sitting in an A/C cabin... and talking to salesforce or begging for money to management.... y would ne1 hire you?
R: This is genuine problem... seriously if they hire you they will throw you out...
M: Yes... if they hire pipsqueak like you they are going to kick you out within 2 days...
N: [I almost now begging..... enough of insult... please lemme go....]
R: Ok.. now consider you are a project manager in an IT company. There are some people under you. They are not meeting ne deadlines... what could be the reasons?
N: They might not be knowing the coding and all [started global...]
R: [stopping in between].... they know that much.. I don’t think any s/w firm would employ such useless people They obviously know basic stuff.
N: [Ma’m you are not aware of some IT companies.....] probably the client is changing req.
R: ok [Calm face... finally i made a non-bullshit point it seems]
N: Probably they are not much ok in working with me
R: Why?
N: If I treat them in an improper manner... If I have gender bias.... So they are not much happy with me
R: So what you do?
N: Face to face meetings... one-one meetings...[ globaaal again....]
M: Will they speak up before you if you are the problem?
N: No but I would develop trust among......
R: (cutting me) I really doubt they will ever speak up....
N: Yes that’s true...
M:So what ways you can have to get something from them?
N: hear from them when they don’t know.. prolly surveillance when they are having coffee breaks or so taking care that they don’t notice... it’s not ethically right but...
M: hehhehe this ethics and all don’t matter ....
N: or else also can be done as have a person who likes you or follows you or has no wrong things about you and then try changing others’ opinions...
M: (suddenly) What’s this economic problem going on around? What’s its effect on Indian economy?
N: [Some global gyaan on no much effect cause of parallel economy n all]
M: So our economy won’t be affected ?
N: No, just that it’s taking time... afterall economy can’t depend only on black market money as the other household biz earnings is too less as compared to the black market economy size...
M: hah!! It’s good.. ask our Netaas they want the most out of the black market only.
N: But if you want to live ethically, you wouldn’t get into it.
M: ethics and all don’t matter.... if you want to have most out of life... you have to go for it...
V: outsourcing is good option na? So the US companies will come here now due to cost cutting.... so our economy will grow better...
N: but nowadays they r finding problems with sponsoring even that so they can’t even afford that...
R: but outsourcing or overall IT in any business is for cost cutting only right? Now if you say its expensive basic purpose of IT is defied .. isn’t it?
N: No... [globaaal]
R: then why don’t you improve the biz by applying more newer IT processes n ur biz? Isn’t it investment?
N: this is not the time for trial or so... no enough funds to try out things... use old methods... better... because if u invest in IT.... prolly the cost would go so up that your biz won’t be existing tomorrow... whats the use of tht IT then?

[Then they asked me to leave...... ] ......& I wake up from the sleep.... what a horrible dream anyone could have.... But I missed one thing.... the result.... waiting for tomorrow for the same probably the dream would continue... wish me luck
-Niru :)

Sayonara!

Sayonara!

(I wrote this post as a goodbye article for the seniors leaving after the completion of their course at GIM... It was really nice to be with them... but again the sadness I saw on their faces while leaving the college... it gave me an inspiration to write this article... Although this article is applicable to almost all places we leave in our lives, there are a couple of places mentioned therein which have some local references viz. the actual college campus, the hotels around etc. Readers are requested to please bear with those...)

He heard something; probably someone was calling him. He left packing and ran to the door as if he was really expecting someone to call him for some work however stupid... He heard voices as if someone was calling him for Brandmaps meeting, for HRM submissions or for just a coffee at Jaggu’s. He looked out of the door... there was no one, yet the voices kept coming in. From where did they come? Was someone there playing a prank on him? He was really doubtful because a very few had left in the hostel after the convocation ceremony. Then who was that? Was it his own mind or something else? Were those noises of winning the CS matches, the calls for the meetings, songs after the bucket parties that he heard were real or just a part of some really freaking mind games?

He kept thinking for a minute... He could actually witness all the happenings. There was his roommate talking to his girlfriend on cell and trying to be as low on voice as possible. He stood between the two groups who were taunting each other for the Cricket matches the other day. He could see his best friend riding a bike to some hotel, Fidalgo probably, for a usual midnight coffee with his not-yet-official girlfriend. Then there was the seven pointer topper of the class returning with his thick specs from the library with a serious notion on the face and the grief that the library was not open 24x7.

He witnessed all this again in a flash. He was back in his past experiencing one of those fun-filled nights at the hostel. Someone then bumped onto him. It was his neighbour... he was again in some trouble with his laptop just a night before some important submissions. He felt like laughing and mocking him that he had done almost everyday but then he suddenly saw a group of guys moving to a room; he followed. They all were discussing about someone... a gossiping session was ‘on’ probably. He felt like joining them, laughing, smiling and discussing some special news in a very low voice. But then he heard someone yelling at the top of his voice... he went there... one of the sincere guys was there standing taking out all his frustrations on some free riders in his team who were simply not concerned about his reaction and were in fact laughing at him. He felt pity for the scholar... Others were around him enjoying the fun but no one cared to come ahead and calm down the scholar, probably they wanted him to discharge his anger first or they just wanted to watch the fun; most probably both.

He left them to join the carom group. They all seemed to be professionals except for the language they used on losing a chance to score a point. The four players were actually surrounded by around 10 people, everyone acting and advising as if he were an old professional carom coach. The card players were busy in their own game and didn’t bother to even look at the others. Then there were some rooms which were closed... some scholars were actually studying hard at that hour too... The sincere guys... they always kept studying irrespective of any event or so, he felt. He always felt jealous over their power of concentration.

Suddenly he was back into reality.... he came from his past back to present... the once house-full corridor now looked deserted. All that fun, all those movements, all those activities, all those people were simply missing and he stood alone in that corridor. Living in memories was easy and the present, because of the same, seemed depressing... He probably was going to miss something. He had lived a great life here but had never realised that until this date. All those study meetings, all those counter strike matches, all those bucket parties, all those carom and card games went past his eyes as if they were happening live before his eyes. He couldn’t stand there. He moved on to the classrooms... Even there, every bench had some or the other story to tell... right from the presentations to dozing off in between the sessions...Right from the negotiations with the professors to extend the assignment deadlines, fights for the class participation marks to simple uncaught and at times caught attempts of copying in the surprise quizzes.

He bumped with someone... she was running fast from mess to the class, probably she was late and didn’t want the professor to shut the door denying her entry to latecomers. He smiled at her but she was too busy to reply... He preferred joining another group of students who had just headed for mess after the session. The mess was as usual full, his classmates had created a good crowd at the counter and were yelling at the top of their voices to get the food at the earliest... Some were running to the dining area with plates, others were just chatting around. He went on... to the quad to witness again all those birthdays, all that birthday spanking that happened there of birthday boys as well as their friends... He looked at the ladies hostel... a building so much near the quad yet remained so much distant because of the fine for boys entering in... He smiled... he remembered the days he kept on looking at her room window, the time he spent in playing basketball, cricket in the quad just to have a glimpse of her and then the Valentines’ day when his good old college friend and she announced about their affair...

He moved on now out of the college... to the ferry point where he had spent hours with friends chatting, at times gossiping or resolving quarrels. He remembered all those incidents... it was like a dream that went by or a movie that was being played in front of his eyes. Suddenly he realised, he had to pack. He started returning... the fish special hotel Annapurna, tea shop of Casa, the restaurant Gene’s all that had been so dear to him, all somehow seemed so distant to him... For the first time he felt he was not a part of that... he was somewhere away and looking at those just like that and not as a part of that scene. He started feeling lonely. He hurried to his room to see whether there was anyone to give him company for a moment or so, but there was none. He returned to his room and started packing. He had to leave soon...

His cab was at the door. The luggage had been loaded. He was about to sit into the cab when he just turned around to have a last look at the place where he had spent probably the best times of his life. His gaze seemed to roll over each and every object around as if it wanted to store everything in the memories for the last time... A tear rolled over his cheek; he himself couldn’t understand why, but again somehow he didn’t feel awkward crying in public even after being a guy.

A couple of moments later his cab kept travelling to the airport with him and his luggage but his mind still lost in that place, was it just because he was leaving a place where he had spent some the most amazing times of his life or because of some unknown bonding he had developed there, even he himself didn’t know... He just felt like saying ‘dasvidaniya’ rather than ‘alvida’ because as they say “saying ‘alvida’ kills all hopes of meeting again”...