Chapter 1
It
was around noon and satvik was on schedule for his interview. He had randomly
received a call a few days ago, from an executives at one of the leading
private banks. He had not expected he would get a call from prospective
employers just a day after he had submitted his resume to one of the numerous
internet job portals.
The call had been as much a surprise as it had been
cherished, for his sister had been nagging him to take up some work since he
had finished his graduation a few months ago. He knew if he could get this job
listed on his resume, he would not just be envied by his friends but would also
be able to rub it the faces of all his teachers. Throughout his college life
they had made sure he felt there was no hope for him or his future. He hadn’t
had much luck with the campus placement cell either but was quiet optimistic
about this interview. He knew a lot was at stake.
He stood at the foot of the gate of the building, and a
massive structure surrounded by a vast garden with various breath taking
landscapes and a small pool in the middle stood in front of him. He would often
cross the building on his way to his college, but this wasn’t quiet the
building he had thought he would have to enter everyday for work. He made his
way to the exotically furnished lobby, too fancy and rich for his taste. It
then occurred to him how easy it would be for people to come and deposit huge
amounts of money in a banking concern that looked like this. With a sea of
people swarming around him, he realized how hectic life was going to be. He
remembered the articles from the newspapers and magazines which he had read
about the bank, and was struck by the gravity of the role he might be able to
play in its future.
He made his way to the reception, and was met with an
acknowledging smile. After verification of certain documents he was given a
roll number. He was then escorted to a huge room somewhere inside the building
and was asked to sit at a bench with other young interviewees, apparently who
had all come in for the same job profile.
The good news was that there were a handful of vacancies,
but looking at the numbers that were turning up, he didn’t quiet think that it
mattered. There was an air of nervousness which hung silently above the room.
It was evident that the newspapers, coffee machines and the TV sets hanging on
the walls, were not able to serve their purpose of making the young candidates
feel at home. At the coffee machine more of small talk was being made than
coffee, and small groups had started to form. With everyone nervous and
clueless most talk was chit chat and blabber.
Satvik glanced up at the wall clock in front of him and the
hands seemed to have stuck, they had hardly moved since the last time he saw
them. By now the already crowded hall seemed stifling to him. A weird silence
had griped the room, with talks in whispers, and the occasional call of roll
numbers which had been allotted to them on arrival.
He was confident that he would bag the job once he got into
the chamber with the interviewer, but the wait was too much to bear.
The fact that they hadn’t seen a single candidate come out
of the interview chamber once they had been called scared everyone. Even
though no one said it, but they all wanted to know what was being asked in the
interview. Just a look on the face of someone who had been interviewed would’ve
been sufficiently reassuring. It seemed as if the room ate anyone who dared to
enter it.
Satvik had started to get restless. His eyes began wandering
through out the room. They were browsing through the group of people standing
in the corner of the room and his eyes met those of a girl’s. It happened just
for a second, and then she started going through some sheets she was holding in
her hands.
Standing somewhere in the midst of the heard she didn’t seem
interested in the conversation to which the rest of the crowd seemed to be
bound by every word. She was what he would’ve said was an average looking girl,
but something about her was compelling and he was dumbstruck trying to figure
out what that was.
He wondered if it was the irony of her light green eyes,
that gave her face a juvenile look and the innocence of a child all at the same
time, he knew there were some secrets which those eyes withheld, or if it was
her unkempt hair which gave her a girlish charm, it made her look more like a free
spirit but at the wrong place, or if it were her lips which gave away a kind of
sensuality, with which the rest of her body did not get along well.
Satvik started contemplating love at first sight and he knew
that it wasn’t. This was something different. He had never felt like this
before. He felt a need to take care of this girl. The innocence of her face
inspired him to reach out to her.
He could feel a sudden rush of energy in himself. He had
just acquired a need to know who the girl was, a name, an address, which
college had she gone to, was she single, anything at all. He kept staring at
her face he didn’t care if it seemed rude. He wanted her to see him. He didn’t
even know if she had noticed him. He felt like walking up to her and talking to
her, to ask her who she was, to ask her if she had felt the same connection.
It was a while before he realized that his roll number was
being called out, apparently it was the 3rd repetition, the most times
yet. He had to go into the interview chamber, but he didn’t want to leave yet.
No, not before he knew she had seen him. He stood there, by now everyone was
getting restless, the roll number had been called a fourth time, with a warning
of it being the final call and then it happened.
She looked up and saw Satvik staring at her, her expression
changed and she seemed more curious than offended, which later changed to
awkwardness and a sudden realization of where they were. He gave her once last
glance before both of them looked away. Satvik picked up his files and marched
towards the interview hall knowing that something had changed.
***
P.S.: I'm publishing this on 27.04.2021 at 02:14AM as was
pending as draft since 2010 without editing it. This was originally published
on 20th Nov, 2010 at 01:26AM but when I logged in today after maybe 8-9 years
it was pending as draft. The one thing I derive from the peculiarity in the
timing of publishing over nearly a decade apart is that somethings never change
like my love for late night work on my blogs.
P.P.S.: I could not have fathomed the prevailing Coronavirus
pandemic, when I had first written this, but it is this pandemic that gave me
the time to step back and reflect over who I am and what I stand for. This blog
is but a reflection of 'I', merely the tip of the iceberg if I may say. Some of
these poems I had written even before 2010, some I will find and update. These
are funny, if not to you, then atleast to me. For they give me an insight into
my own reflections of life. There are many, I can't say 'Answers' but
advancements (maybe) in understanding of 'I', the most reflective of which is
definitively #Chalteraho.
