The Interview

It was my second interview ever... The first one was with HP (Hewlett Packard) not Hindustan Petroleum... campus interview... i cleared that one... went to b'lore... din't like.. came back... stayed home for 3 months... was super inconfident for my second interview... why? Cuz i had lost touch with my studies... and 3 months of nagging had made me feel suicidal and worthless!!!

Nevertheless, I had one thing that was making me confident... I had cleared the infosys paper that 1 of my brilliant cousins and 1 of my friend were not able to! So, i knew that i was above them... I especially bought and wore an orange suit... why?? cuz I thought that orange was my lucky colour... I tied my hair nice and proper, wore lenses, blah blah!!! The interview was scheduled to start at 12: 30... i reached the premise at 11:30... I was a little confident but high on energy.. time passed by... the clock went from 1, to 2 to 3... my turn had not come as yet. :( + i was hungry + a couple of people asked me if i had solved some puzzle book... what the hell... i din't know that infy asked us to solve puzzles!

Then i heard my name, I pulled up my sox (not literally), put on a bright smile and entered the room... Good afternoon, i said to the two middle aged gentlemen, they gave me a stern look and said, it seems somebody has had a good day! Anyways, tell us something about yourself... your strenghts, your weaknesses... wow... this one was easy... i sailed through... then they asked which is your favourite subject, i said VLSI, then they said what do you think you're the weakest at... i said GK... (I mean, I seriously suck at it)... then they said... you will need to face your fear... tell us... what is the name of the president of india... wow maan... i knew this one... the only problem is I f****** could not remember his name... or was it his or her name... uuummm.... i said... i know this one... they said...ok... go ahead... so i took a deep breath... and said... i am awefully nervous.... to this they said, you look pretty confident... i said... well its this guy who has pretty long hair and does not believe in short cuts... they were amazed at my answer and started laughing... i laughed along.... they said... ok next question... and i suddenly thumped the table and said its APJ Abdul Kalam.... yeah maan... i was delighted!! i got a Gk question right for god's sake...

Next question... who is the FM.... I said thaz P. Chidambaram... this one came right out when they asked... next question... who is the the PM... oh shucks maan... again... i knew this one, but whaz with the damn name... I suddenly found that I had one hand up on my head, as if i were holding a tennis ball right there, and i said, its the sardaar ji... they said... do you know the name??? I again thumped the table and said Manmohan singh.... i dont understand whats it between me and the table, i have the answers when i bang the darn thing.

Then they pointed towards my watch, i was wearing a fastrack watch, i still have it... they said... what is that? i said its a watch... ok, what shape is it? I said it looks like a triangle to me... they said, im talking to an engineer, why dont you tell me what shape is in technical terms... i stared at my watch for a good 1 minute, and said it pretty much looks triangular to me... both my interviewers looked at each other and sighed... then they said, should we thump the table for you? I said, why? Is my answer wrong... they said, try thumping the table, so i did... oh yeah! it is a parabola not a triangle... i think.... that table was very helpful to me that day.

Then they said, what is that you're wearing in your ears... i said its an earring... what earring... they are pearls... they said its looking nice, where did you buy it from (Oh! so he wanted a pair for his wife or what)... i replied... well, my mum bought it, its actually my ma's.... he said, ok, lemme rephrase the question, where do you get pearls from? i said... this one, i think is from hyderabad... i mean hyderabadi pearls are really famous... i suddenly saw an excitement build in their faces... 1 of them said... no dear... where are they made?? or actually mined?? Which mountain do we get them from? do we find them in the northern regions or the southern regions?? I was actually falling for it... My mind was doing a full swing... where are they mined from??? which moutains??? then it suddenly struck me... diamonds are mined... so maybe pearls are mined too... but where???

I could not remember... I was about to give up... Then thanks to my love for cartoons, i suddenly remembered something... i very gently said, I really respect your knowledge, but im not sure if pearls are mined at all... they asked, why do you say so?? I said, i have never seen extraction of pearls, but i have seen many a times in the cartoons that in the oceans, there are shells (i made a air filled horizontal namaskar) and when the shells open up ( i slowly opened up my namaskar to make an almost 90 degree) you can find the pearl in there... they said, thaz bullcrap ( i am pretty sure thaz not the word they used, but for simplicity, we will take it as is) pearls are mined just like diamonds from a specific mountaineous region... i said, you could be a 100 percent right, but cartoons are an indirect way of imparting knowledge to the children, hence, i am pretty sure that the pearls are found in the oceans...

They both looked at each other and started laughing hysterically, then they turned to me and one of them said, geeta, betay, we've never had such a fun filled interview before.... you really made us laugh, all the best for your future!!! (All the best for your future.... they had rejected me... o no!!! i consoled myself) I said, so may i leave for the day... they said, no, wait outside... i said ok, got up from my chair, turned around, opened the door, turned around to face them, said thank you, have a great day! they smiled back, and said you too! i quietly moved out of the room and closed the door behind me... then there was another chit chat where i discussed with others how their interview went, and was amazed to find out that people were given puzzles to solve and asked all sorts of technical questions!!! (a le! so they never wanted to hire me... they din't ask me even 1 technical question).. anyways, we had another round with the hr, who just asked us if we will have a problem if we were to be transfered any place else, i said no! (as if they were going to hire me anyways)

i cried back the entire way... + i hadn't eaten all day, so my stomach was hurting and grumbling!!! i felt like a complete waste... full day lost!!! anyways... 2 weeks passed by... and the result was out... wait a minute... my name was there... i wanted to scream with joy... but i could not believe my eyes... i switched off the computer, turned it on again, asked my ma to see my result... my joining date was Decmeber 26 at infosys, chandigarh.... hahahaha!!!! i could not and still cannot believe i made it through infosys with an interview like that!!!