Face off !

Campus recruitment, is one of the most important and incredibly interesting process in a student's life. Written exams, Group discussions, interviews, situation handling, mental ability, aptitude testing, puzzles, riddles, results, full night study, chit chat in the middle of the night, teaching the weak, helping each other, Failed faces, succeeded heads, Prayers and wishes, Phone calls to Girl Friend(s) and parents, food festivals and drinking sprees on success, its all complete fun. But there is one more thing, that many of you would have not experienced, at least fully. I did.

August 14, 2007. It dawned as one regular morning. I am a would-be electrical engineering graduate, with two software engineer offers in hand. My own placement story is small, spanning less than a month. Got placed into a consultancy on June 21,2007 and into a product company on July 18,2007. I opted for 4 jobs, got 3 offers and my placement got over. This day, I was on my way to class, carrying all my books.. My friend met me at the entrance of my class, told me there was an off-campus recruitment in a neighbouring college and he wanted me to write the exams for him. I have done this before a few times. I would clear the written, only to let my friend get rejected in the group discussion. I thought, i am going to add one more to the list.

I had been to this college for over a dozen times for a dozen reasons. I need not require anyone to direct me the exam hall. I knew where it was. I went straight there, found a seat at the perfect corner and sat beside my friend. She was helping out another girl, a classmate of ours. With our combined brains, we were not going to let our friends fall.

The question paper had 20 questions. Everything but a couple were simple. My friend is not going to be out, unless my identity is revealed. That threat came in form of another friend from another department. He had come to help his friends and had found a way in me. He ordered help. I had to. I wrote answers in a rubber and passed it to him. Unfortunately, he found the answers in my scoring sheet were contradicting that in his rubber. I somehow made him believe those were the right ones. He never again in college spoke to me. His friends were out. In any campus placements, class comes first. With a bit of knowledge sharing in the exam hall my friends were in, scoring the top two spots. Mission Accomplished.

NO, said my friend. He had plans for me. The next round was a 5 minute seminar was two hours away. I was sitting there in front of a workshop with my stinking dress, that has not seen washing for months and some fucking slippers. My friends rushed back room to get some formals, my shoes and his mark sheets and certificates. They needed some modifications thought. The criteria for the job was to have no backlogs. I slipped into proper formals, for the first time in my life in a public toilet. Well, it did not stink as my dress at least. With no preparation of any kind, I gave a 7.30 minute seminar on electric diodes. The flow was there and I was satisfied. So were they. But, the sad part was, my friend could not get through. For her knowledge, she could have pulled it just like that. But simply, it was not her day. The next round, an half an hour seminar was less than 48 hours away. It meant, after all, I will not be free on Independence day.

I had two choices. Simple and Compound Interest or Probability. I went with the easiest, SI and CI. When all my country was free, I was tied up with a fucking seminar. Even my friends, for whom i was appearing was playing Age of Empire. He said, by doing so he will not disturb me at least. yes, no one disturbed me that day. I prepared well and went for a 8 hour sleep. Tomorrow, I may or may not sleep, based on the results.

August 16,2007. With modified mark sheets, a worn out shirt and a new identity, I entered the office of a third college. It was christian minority. I saw this girl there. She was a candidate, a potential opponent. Her family accompanied her. When the whole list of candidates were preparing, two did not.She was one, playing with a kid, who could have possibly been some cousin and I was the other, staring at her. After two hours of staring, she was called in. I started starting at the walls of the prayer hall, where we were seated. I took them another hour to call me in.

"He who created thee, created me !

He who feeds thee, feeds me !

He who protects thee, protects me !

Cause, You are his child and so am I !"

These verses introduced a born Hindu (or a grown atheist) to a Muslim and a christian. My small idea to impress them. I hope It did. The next half an hour was no difficulty. SI and CI flowed out of my brain. A couple of cross questions and clear answers took me into the probables list. At least i thought so. An interview followed, which i am yet to understand if it was technical or an HR. I performed well, but some one could have outperformed me. I knew they did not, when I was called for one more interview.

My friend got placed. But I was the one who gained more than he did. In my other interviews, my CGPA 9.8 spoke for me. Here, I had to. I was given a placement letter along with some feedback, They felt my hard work was great (They gave me 9/10). They were more than satisfied with my enthusiasm and teaching skills (8/10) and expected some improvements in my English (6/10) and my slang (4.5/10).

Modified mark sheets into placement letter. New parents and a new identity. It felt nice until i saw them. I was leaving the building when the low hanging heads met mine. They were in disappointment. I felt sorry for them Had i not appeared, one of them would have made it. But, It was not meant to be.

Reception at the college was good. All my friends congratulated us. My friend was gone to inform the news to our faculties when his phone rang. It was his mother. He had called up his father to deliver the happy news, but had not rang his mother. She did. I picked up the call, only to hear enjoyment. I could see her face glow with happiness and pride, just through her voice. That merry lifted all sense of guilt from my head. She was happy for her son. She did not know she was speaking to him. She was my mother, at least for a couple of days. I am happy, I made her smile, at least once in my life.

But still, I owe a big sorry to those guys, who missed a chance because of our face off. Sorry ! Well, I still don't know if i played Nicholas cage or John Travolta. Could you please help me? :P