Notice: Persons attempting to find a plot in this story will
be prosecuted; persons attempting to find resemblance with real people will be
banished; persons who don’t find it boring will be shot.
1. The battle
One cannot blame the fan for his profuse sweating, for it
was on its full speed. Maybe it was the reception room setting, but one can’t
definitely tell. Arjun, all suited up in formals along with a matching tie and
neatly polished shoes ,was waiting in the reception with his file for the final
round of this interview. The only unwelcome visitor was the sweating. He had forgotten to bring the deodorant, but
well, fortunately he never forgets to bring his cell phone. He texted his best
friend Srini to bring him the deodorant. Srini was placed in the first 3
companies that came to campus, so the university policy prohibited him from
attending further interviews. He had routine final year classes to attend and
he will probably miss breakfast, but what are friends for?
The reception was quietly filling in with the other
candidates. But he paid no attention to the stream of humanity that flowed past
him, as his eyes were seriously set on the entrance and his watch. There was at
least half an hour before the process will begin, but it was impossible for him
to be not nervous. A short, dark guy came sat next to him.
“Hi. I’m Harish, final year ECE and you are?” he introduced
himself.
“Arjun, Mech.”
“Cool man, that’s awesome. I suppose this is your first
interview?”
Maybe he noticed the sweating. Arjun was in no mood for
small talk with a stranger, but he had to be nice.
“No, it is not my first interview” he replied. Every
interview is scary in its own way.
“Oh so in how many interviews have you been screwed
over?” Harish laughed at his apparently
funny question.
Srini arrived just in time to save the embarrassment. Arjun
went out, used his deo, drank some water and thanked him for his timely help.
“No formalities da. You know this is the 42nd
company visiting our campus right?” Srini asked.
“Yes da. Why asking?”
“I don’t think any more good companies will come for
recruiting. This may well be your last chance da. Remember how much you have
struggled to reach till here. Don’t put all that hard work to waste da. This is
the final lap and the race will be over after that. Give it your best shot.
Greet the interviewer, make eye contact with him, look confident and answer
diplomatically. And one request. Please don’t even drop a hint to the
interviewer that you hate engineering.” he said.
Arjun gave an almost serious, wistful look at Srini and said
“I will try.”
“It makes you look
bad da. Maybe that is why so many companies rejected you. I don’t understand
why you hate it so much. After all, it’s just a degree and it’s not done you
much bad” Srini said.
Arjun had always hated
engineering. After his grade 12, he, like every kid had to go through the
ordeal of making a career choice and a suitable college choice. The mood at his
house was always tense.
“Don’t do arts, you are not going to be an artist. Don’t do science, you
are not going to be a scientist.” his dad’s voice echoed in his mind.
“Well I won’t do
engineering either, because I am not
going to be an engineer” he had said.
“Stop arguing. I don’t
have the time for this. I have lost a job that I was doing for 20 years and you
know why?”
Arjun’s dad worked for
a cellular company which was recently taken over by a bigger multinational
software company for a whopping sum. Just when his dad thought it was a good
deal, there came a shocker. The new management decided to layoff thousands of
employees as a means of damage control. They were all fired with an annual
compensation, but without any mercy.
“Why do you think I
was fired? 20 years of service and I know my job in and out. They fired
everyone who didn’t have a professional qualification like an engineering
degree. When a company is downsizing, all they need is some silly reason to
send you off. I am not ready to give those companies a reason to fire my son.
So, listen to me, I am doing this for your own good, and you will understand it
only after you grow old.”
“But what about who I
want to be in my life?” he had asked innocently.
“You can’t always get what you want” promptly came the reply. His dad
always had a reply.
“But why is it that
you always get what you want?” The teenage rage was pushing Arjun to ask such
questions.
“No. Even I don’t get
what I want. I wanted you to crack the IIT exams. If you had been more serious
in your preparations you would have qualified for IIT like that Raghav. But you
didn’t”
“But I am not him.”
Arjun cried and went inside his room.
People are a lot like numbers.
Comparison works only with rational entities; not with complex ones. And parents discover that every teenage
child is a complex entity only too late. By then, the children are already
hurt.
“Cry all you want now,
its better. I don’t want you crying when I leave you to your choice and you
ruin your future. This is a bitter pill
you have to swallow for your own good.”
A proverb to end the
conversation. It meant that his dad had won.
After those arguments, he could never really bring himself
to love engineering. The classes killed his mind and the labs tired his body.
But Arjun didn’t share any of that history to Srini because geniuses like him
will never understand how difficult engineering was for an ordinary student
like him. They will simply think that you are giving excuses and you just don’t
try hard enough. But they will never understand what it feels
like to be trapped somewhere you don’t belong.
“Thanks for the inputs da. I am going in” he said that with
a diplomatic smile.
“I feel for you da. I hope you crack this interview for
god’s sake. All the best” Srini said.
Arjun didn’t know if the interview is going to enable him to
get a job and earn a salary, but it had already earned him a lot of sympathy. And
if there is anything worse than apathy, it is sympathy.
“Thanks da” he replied and went inside sitting in his chair.
“I was asking you about how many interviews you had
attended?” It was Harish. The little devil wasn’t decent enough to drop the
subject.
“41” he replied with the recent input Srini had given him.
“So you have been keeping count. That’s good. I was rejected
in my last interview because I couldn’t properly count.”
“Oh! What did they ask you?”
“The interviewer asked me the number of trees planted in our campus.”
“Look, I don’t get your jokes man.” Arjun was annoyed with
Harish’s apparently funny jokes.
“I’m serious man. Not joking at all. He really asked me that
question. It’s supposed to be testing your, erm, what did they call it, yeah it
tests your structural thinking ability”
“Oh. How did you answer that question?” Arjun was curious to
find an approach to that problem.
“I asked him if the problem was part of the job profile in
the company. Maybe the job required me to go to colleges and say to people,
‘Excuse me, did you know that there are seven hundred and forty eight trees in
your campus?’ Because I wouldn’t like doing such a job man.”
Everyone who heard that joke laughed out loud. Arjun
couldn’t resist but smile, but he had no intentions of teasing the methods used
by a company to hire people, so he wiped that smile off his face instantly.
Harish continued. “The point I am trying to make is,
companies nowadays ask such different questions man. No point preparing in the
age old fashion for a typical interview. I looked at how nervous you were and
wanted to lighten you up a bit. The interviewer wants to hire you, so don’t
pretend to be someone you are not. Be confident man.”
It made sense. Arjun realized that he had to be creative and
original in all his answers and thanked Harish for that last-minute prep. The
interview had begun and Arjun was the next man in. Harish stood up and gave Arjun
an unexpected hug. ”Win this battle man, because you very well can.” he jokingly
said to Arjun.
Life is weird. Suddenly, you start to feel more comfortable
around a stranger who is jobless like you than around a friend who has three
jobs as a backup.
2. The battlefield
The interview was on.
“May I come in sir?” Arjun entered the interview room which
seemed like a battlefield.
“Yes, take your seat.”
Arjun gave his resume to the interviewer politely and took
his seat.
“Hello Arjun, my name is Krishna.” the interviewer extended
his hand.
Arjun gave a near perfect firm handshake just like he was
taught in the placement training classes.
“So tell me about
yourself” The standard ice-breaker question.
Arjun gave the typical answer that millions of people have
rehearsed in front of a mirror before the interview. He knew he had to be
different but the nervousness of the situation got the best of him. His chance
of making a good first impression was gone, but he was certain he had to make
an impact in the forthcoming questions.
“Very well. Why engineering? Why not any other degree?”
Bad question.
“I was very much interested in engineering since my
childhood sir. I used to build sandcastles, run remote controlled cars, and
play with Lego blocks to build things. Now we are doing all that on a bigger
scale which is pretty much exciting” He tried to sell his lie with a fake
excitement.
“If you are very much interested in engineering, then why
are your grades consistently low?”
It was obvious that the interviewer didn’t buy his lie. He must
have interviewed thousands of students like him.
“Yes my grades are low and I am solely responsible for that.
To be honest, I unfortunately do not possess the technical skills to crack an
examination with better grades. I am good at certain other things like
assessing a situation, communicating a point, working as a team, writing good
reports, these soft skills which are more important in my view.” Arjun
replied.
The interviewer was silent. Wanting to create an impression,
Arjun continued with a quote.
“But if you are going to judge a fish by its ability to climb trees, it
is going to spend its whole life believing that it’s stupid.”
“Quoting Einstein, are we?”
“Yes I thought it was apt; Einstein didn’t have great grades
either. Yet he went on to do great things.”
“Yes, and Einstein didn’t sit for an interview in a
corporate either” he retorted. The plan had backfired.
The interviewer was going through his resume and the silence
made Arjun tremble. He got tense and sad at the same time. He knew that the
interview was not going his way. He was thinking about how all his friends had
a job offer; how he had to work hard to get a job he didn’t even want to do; how
every time his dad tried to hide his disappointment with the results; how he
had failed everyone who ever put their trust on him. For the first time in his
life, he felt sorry for his dad who always had high hopes on him.
“So you have mentioned in your hobbies that you read books.
Which is your most favorite book?”
At the moment all he could think about was his dad.
“To kill a mockingbird” he named a classic book on
father-son relationship.
“Interesting. So tell me, who is your inspiration in life?
Your role model?”
He never thought he would tell those words but they came out
instantly from his mouth. “My father, sir.”
“Can you tell me Why?”
He didn’t answer that spontaneously. He was thinking. He
remembered the moment when he happened to overhear his parents the night his
dad had lost his job.
“My dad lost his job due to a change in company management
when I finished school sir. He was competent and good in his job, but he wasn’t
professionally qualified. The family was in turmoil. I am their only son and I
was to go to college. I resisted the idea to do engineering initially because
it was too costly, and my dad had to put up his entire lifetime’s savings on my
education. My mom asked him why he didn’t invest his money on real estate, gold
or even the stock market so that he could’ve reaped a larger return on
investment thereby overcoming our economic crisis. He said to my mom that he was
saving it all for the biggest investment of his life: an investment on my
education. Because according to him, money is transient but knowledge,
is eternal.
The investment meant that he probably can’t have three square meals a day, but
I will have enough to buy all the books that I need. Engineering is a struggle,
but what he did that day, was heroics. The world breaks everyone and afterward many
are strong in the broken places.”
“Hemingway’s line from ‘A farewell to arms’. You read a lot
of good books. I think your father has made the right investment after all.
Because one who reads good books can survive anywhere. They will survive despite all odds”
He’d gotten the first
positive remark from the interviewer. It cheered him up.
“So you doing engineering was your father’s wish? It was by
force, not by your choice am I correct?
“It is a bit of both sir. “
“Explain how.”
“True, it is only because of my father that I am doing
engineering. But it was my choice too. A choice between obeying my dad and be a
good son, or, disobeying him and betray all his dreams for me. He was a good
father. I wanted to be a good son. So I took that choice.”
The interviewer seemed content with the answer but he didn’t
explicitly show it in his face. He continued with the questions. Arjun got hold
of his good run and wasn’t willing to give up that attitude till the very end.
“If not for your dad, what stream would you have chosen? What
do you want to be in your life?”
Arjun realized that this was the first time anyone had ever
asked him that. The whole world concentrates on surviving the scare and nobody
wishes to know what you really want to be in life.
“Maybe I would have taken up literature, because all I ever
wanted to be was become a writer.”
“Then why didn’t you pursue that dream?”
“I am pursuing it. Whenever I get a
chance I write poems, plays, essays and short stories. People tell me I write
decent enough. I have a printout of one of my favorite short stories.” He gave
his file to the interviewer. He went through the file looking at the story,
beneath which, were lots of certificates he had won in poems and essays and
plays right from his school till college. “But it isn’t realistic to expect someone
to pay me for all my writing. So, that dream is on hold sir.”
Krishna nodded at him and then, continued with the
questioning.
“Where do you see yourself in five years?”
“I don’t know sir.”
“What do you mean you don’t know?”
“I don’t think you
want me to give a clichéd answer that every kid that you have ever interviewed
has told you over and over. I think you want a truthful answer.” he remembered
Harish’s last minute remark.
“And honest to heart, I don’t know what the future beholds.
Nobody knows. I won’t lie to you that I will be working in your company because
honestly I don’t know that now. But I can prepare myself for that unknown
future, build knowledge everyday and learn to adapt to that new future. I am
going to have a go at it. If I don’t try, I’ll never know. I may be wrong but I am not afraid of
proven wrong. That’s how I learn. I’m sure wherever I see myself after
5 years, you will be happy to share that view without any regrets. Trust me”
Arjun finished.
In all his experience of interviewing people, Krishna hadn’t
heard a reply like that. He knew in the bottom of his heart that, Arjun was a
good and honest person and he wished to know him better. Suddenly an idea
struck him.
“Listen Arjun, you seem to be an interesting candidate to
me. But also a very confused soul. I wish I can impart some clarity to you by talking
more freely to you, by giving you important lessons on life, by citing some
personal examples but not in this interview setting. This is the deal. You can
have me, either as a guide, or as an employer. But not as both. It’s your choice.”
Arjun was surprised. “I am not sure I follow you sir.”
“Listen Arjun. You are good enough for a job offer in my
company. But I don’t think you want just a job. I will tell you this: you
are worth more than the superfluous job title we give you. So I will offer
you something more. I will be your guide and will steer you on the path to
reach your dreams, I will share with you the secret of success, and I will give
you a chance to fulfill your destiny. Pick anything you want and I assure you,
I will offer you that. What is it that you seek? My job or my guidance? It’s
your choice.”
“Give me a moment sir.”
Arjun was totally taken aback. He had never heard anything
like that before. He had to make a crucial decision that can make
or break his career. He weighed his options. He can take the job, and
the ordeal would be over. Everyone who laughed at him, who thought he wasn’t good
enough, would be given a slap-in-the-face response. His dad will be happy; he
can improve his family’s economic status. He would be an adult. Happy ending. But
it was too easy. And nothing’s that’s ever worthwhile comes easy.
Maybe it was a trick question. Maybe he is testing him if he is desperate for a
job. He weighed the second option. Everyone had a job, a job that paid them
enough to make them forget that they don’t like what they were doing. He truly
wanted that job only for other’s sake. But there is an inner child in everyone
that craves for something more. He had burning questions about everything in
life and he wished he had a bit more clarity. He didn’t want to be an adult. He
wanted to be a child of his own choice.
He put himself in his dad’s shoes and thought what he would
have decided in this situation. He
remembered the story his dad had recited from the Mahabharata. Arjuna was asked
to decide between an unarmed Krishna, the guide, the charioteer and Krishna’s
army. Ordinary Men like Duryodhana would have wanted an army, because they
think soldiers win wars. But the unparalleled Arjuna wanted an unarmed Krishna,
because he knew that strategies win war, and Krishna was a brilliant strategist.
Arjun realized the similarity in the scenarios. And he made his choice.
3. The Song
“I want you to be my guide, sir” he said that out loud.
Krishna smiled. “I thought so. So let’s talk. Shoot me your
questions.”
“Sir, why is the educational system designed this way? I
have to battle against my own kith and kin, take up arms against my own parents
and my own teachers to get what I want. What’s the use of it all? Is it even
possible to realize your goals without having to wash your hands in the bloods
of disapproval from everyone you love?” Arjun asked.
“Oh Arjun! It’s just not possible to live without disappointing
your loved ones. They have been disappointed millions of times before and they will
be disappointed again. Even if you don’t disappoint them, someone else will. So
stop worrying about that. Your dream is a piece of land that rightfully belongs
to you. If you don’t fight for your right, then you are defeating your own
purpose, in which case you disappoint yourself.”
Krishna continued. “As far as the education system is
concerned, there is a reason why the system is designed the way it is. It has
to accommodate everyone, giving most people a fair chance at life. There will
be unfair evaluation, unfair reservation, unfair standards and unfair results. But
who is to decide what is fair for all? In the existing system, everyone
feels out of place, everyone feels something is wrong with it, and it is that idea
of equal failure that holds together all these diverse people. You want
to stick together a lot of different pieces but you don’t like the glue?
How’s that going to work?”
“So are you saying
the system shouldn’t be changed? Because if it isn’t changed, the dreams of millions
of youngsters like me will be crushed under the common roller named engineering.”
“You want to change the system? Sure you can, and you
should. But first, you have to defeat the system. Come out on top.
There is no point being in a sinking ship and complaining that it’s broken.
Become the engineer the system forced you to be, and then become what you wanted
to be after that. You will have the last laugh then. But a lot of people either
give up or give in to the system. It takes someone strong to swim against the
tide. So make yourself strong everyday.”
“How do I make myself strong?”
“With Remote. Read. Educate. Meditate. Observe. Think. Evolve.
Do them all. In Every living moment.”
“I realized the importance of money only when it was scarce.
In some way, money affects all our decisions. I wanted the job initially because
if I had more money, I would have been happier. So tell me how to make a lot of
money?” asked Arjun.
“I’ll answer this from my personal experience. I live in a
penthouse. I own an Audi. I make so much money in a year that sometimes, I don’t
know what to do with it. But being
rich is not being happy, I can tell you that. Of course being rich is
better than being poor, but it’s not nearly as good as you imagine it is. I am
not allowed to be sad, allowed to complain, allowed to feel all the little
things in life simply because I possess a lot of money. As the saying goes, you
are lonely at the top. All of the things you want to buy are now worthwhile
only because you simply can’t afford them. And mind you, there will always be
things that you can’t afford no matter how much money you have. Being happy is a
different thing altogether. You think if you had more money, your life will be
better and you will be happier? No. Happiness is not an attainment. It is a
state of mind. If you’re not happy now, you won’t be happy because of money. So
my dear Arjun, its not about how much money you make that counts, it is about
how happy you are with the money that counts.“
“What is the secret of success?”
“It isn’t a secret at all. A lot of people know it and have
been hugely successful. I will tell it to you now, so listen carefully Oh Arjun!
Be passionate about something. When you want to succeed at something, do it
for passion, not for money. Work
hard to be damn good at something. Focus on the action that you do and not on
its fruits. Build your own
ethical system and never ever cross that line. Be persistent and don’t get
worried about failures. Because after all, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?”
“One final question. What is the meaning of life?”
“Arjun, do you think life is a mystery, a box of questions
that you have to find the answers to? I don’t think so. I think life is a box full of
answers. You have to ask yourself what is the question that is meant for you.
When you find the right question, you will discover the answer that’s already
there. Only then, life would be meaningful.”
“I am getting a bit of perspective here. But I think I have
to digest it all before I make a significant life change. Thanks for the
clarity, but tell me why did you pick me, of all the people, to give this
insight?”
“When I look at you, I saw a reflection of my younger self.
That is why. And whenever you find a misguided soul, a soul searching for its
purpose, you are free to give them this advice. But don’t force it upon them or
argue that only your path is right. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and
everyone is free to choose their own path. Always remember that all paths lead
to the same destination only. If you have no more questions, you may leave.”
Krishna sounded exhausted.
“Sir, I do have one last question. “
“Go ahead”
Arjun was putting his thoughts together. He couldn’t deny
that the discussion was very insightful, but at the end of the day he had to leave
the room jobless and meet his parents without a remedy for their condition. But
it was a choice he made. This time he was the one who rejected a job offer and
not the way around. He might have got his piece of
land by the choice of battle, but the story is never complete without redemption.
The question burned his insides. He asked it out.
“What should I tell my dad??”
Krishna nodded with an understanding smile.
“Tell him that, this interview, this battle you just fought,
was never yours. You had fought it unwillingly for his sake, but yet managed to
win it for him. “.
“What does that mean?” asked Arjun.
“It means that I am also human and I understand human
emotions. I have all the money in the world but I am still working right? One
simply cannot be stripped off his job. I am against such unethical mismanagement.
I would value an employee who has given continuous service to my company for 20
years. And I respect people like your dad, who never give up their fight. So, I
would like to offer him a top management position at my company. This is my
card. Ask him to meet me in my office with this card to receive his appointment
letter.”
Arjun was feeling like a mother who just felt the little
fingers of her newborn baby.
“Do you remember me telling you that I don’t know what to do
with my money? Now I know. I am going to sponsor your education. Study
literature as you wished and become a successful writer. You won your dad his battle. Now
go fight yours. ”
Arjun didn’t know what to say. Maybe this was the majestic
view of Krishna, his Vishwarooba Dharshan.
For the first time in his life, he felt he was free.
“Thank you sir. Mere words can’t express what this means to Me.”
cried Arjun.
“What sort of a writer are you if you can’t express your
feelings in words? Here, take this kerchief, wipe your tears and leave this room.
I bloody have to hire a few potential employees. A lot of people might probably
be scolding us for wasting their precious time. And Arjun, don’t stop reading
good books. They make you a better writer. Speaking of good books,
behold. I have something to give you.”
Krishna opened his
bag, took a bounded book that he always has with him, opened its first page,
wrote something on it and gifted it to Arjun. “Read this book. It will make you
a better
person.”
Arjuna thanked him and left the room with a smile on his
face. He opened the book to look at its title.
It was the Bhagavad Gita.
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