The Library Escape of the Seventh Candidate

1st week of December 2009 – Hyderabad (Next Afternoon)

“Sameer…..where the hell have you been? And where is your blazer? You are next for the interview!” our placement coordinator was pulling me towards the faculty block. He was half of my size, so the pulling was more of an indication of urgency and less of any physical impact. I had not moved even a bit.

Earlier in the morning, after I had received a confusing token from Priti – The Ganesha, I went through the pre-placement presentation and an aptitude test. I had no hope of getting through the further rounds of interviews because of two major reasons. The pre-placement talks took place in a classroom on the ground floor, since there were just a handful of students eligible to sit for the placement process as per the academic criteria that was set by the company. The seminar hall would have been a lot bigger for the purpose. This room was right opposite to President Sir’s office – the place where the meeting for our suspension was going to be held. My whole attention during the presentation was on the opposite room and I was curiously tracking the people who were entering the room and how much time they were spending in the room before leaving. I had absolutely no idea of what was being presented in the room where I was seated. Secondly, even though I was good with aptitude tests, I was pretty nervous with the series of events that had happened in the past couple of days. I had tentatively marked a lot of answers, just in the interest of time and to attempt all the questions. At the end, we had to write a few lines on any of the two given topics in the blank space provided on the answer sheet. My command of the language was fair, but my handwriting was pathetic and highly illegible. There was no way anyone could make sense of what was written, even when it was written fairly well.

Hence, as soon as the aptitude test was over, I abandoned my blazer and put myself at the place where no one could find me – the library. I had borrowed Toshi’s iPod and plugged on some music which I hardly understood – Toshi’s taste of music was very particular and all the songs in the list belonged to a genre that I wasn’t aware of. But it sounded soothing and I found the statement absolutely true that music has no language. I had kept my phone handy, on the table, just in case if I hear anything from Sadia. I had stopped worrying about the suspension meeting, since it was more or less decided that we would be getting suspended – there was no way out of this. At that point of time, my biggest worry was Sadia since I had not heard from her in more than 48 hours.

“Sameer, you elephant…….get going and better suit up. Get a copy of your resume along. You have an interview to attend in the next two minutes” our placement coordinator had given up pulling me from my seat. He was two batches seniors to me at the institute and had choosen not to go for any placements since he wanted to pursue his Ph.D by working with other professors at the institute. That’s why he had the liberty of calling me an elephant. I got up, confused and started walking towards the hostel to get my resume and to get ready for the interview. I just tried to hear him back in my head, and stopped, turned back and asked, “So does that mean I cleared the aptitude test?”

He looked pissed before he answered, “Yes, you are amongst the 7 students who made the cut – you ass!”

What’s with this animal name calling, Mr. Animal Planet? – I thought, first an elephant and now an ass. I started heading towards the hostel, almost sprinting and as I met people on my way, they started following me back to my room. They were updated about the list of students who were selected for the interview round, before me, since the placement department was on a look out for me at every nook and corner of the campus. By the time I reached my room, I was panting and the whole hostel had got into my room.

“Guys, please excuse me for a moment, I need to change” and I expected them to vacate the room – more than 70-80 of them, by the way. Nobody was moving and even if they started moving out, it would have taken an eternity for them to vacate my room. I didn’t have much time to shoo them away and I started changing into my blazer in front of everybody.

It looked like a proper Hollywood movie scene, in my head. A warrior is getting ready for an ultimate war. The theme music of Mission Impossible started playing, in my head. I called out; “RESUME….” and Suraj handed over two copies of my resume to me.

I called out; “FRAGNANCE….” and Saril got some perfume to bathe me with.

I called out; “LUCK….” and Jaffer got some curd for good luck.

Meanwhile, Gopal, who was sleeping like a log in my room got up with all the commotion around, narrowed his eyes when he saw so many people around and then again went back to sleep.

I was all set to leave, when Toshi called out; “SMOKES….” as I turned back after standing still briefly. Toshi offered a couple of puffs of the cigarette he was smoking.

I reached the academic block in a jiffy. The waiting area was empty, except for one of the professionals of the company who was talking over to someone in immaculate English over his phone. It took him precisely ten seconds to notice I was there.

“Hey buddy, is it Sameer Merchant?”

He had ended his call and had his arm resting on my shoulder by now. I was conscious of the friendly gesture, just to ease off the visible tension from my face. I don’t know whether it was because of the sprint or this surprising friendly gesture, I started sweating profoundly.

I nodded nervously to answer his question, talking less would make sure I make fewer mistakes, at least before the actual interview. He became aware that I wasn’t getting comfortable, so he took his arm off my shoulders and started talking with a smile, “Oh Thank God they found you! We finished interviewing the rest of the six guys and they just informed us that the seventh guy had gone missing. Good that you are back, we were just about to pack-up and leave…….so, shall we start?”

He politely pointed at the door where the interviews were being held. The room was cold, may be because of the A/C, but it was definitely cold enough to be scary. There were two other interviewers, other than the person who had escorted me to the interview room. The interview began as I sat on the other side of the table.

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