The Day The State Split Asunder-1

Karthik was pacing back and forth in the hallway corridor, behaving like a cat on a hot tin roof. After having completed the three rounds of the recruitment process, he is just a step away from grabbing the offer letter if he can sweep the face-to-face interview with the Human Resource Professional. 

       'Mr. Karthik!' A cute young lady with a ponytail and dressed in a black blazer called him. 

       'Yes, Ma'am!' Karthik said, turning towards her. 

       'Go to panel-3 for the interview,' she said. 

       Karthik made a move and the pony-tailed woman escorted him to the interview room.

      'Thank you!' Karthik said to the woman. She returned him with a smile and a nod, and left the room. 

       The interviewer was seated on a brown leather chair. He had a black beard with white streaks here and there. His appearance looked a bit intimidating. 

       'May I take your name?' The interviewer asked Karthik in a polite tone.

       'Good afternoon sir. My name is Karthik,' Karthik returned, smiling nervously at the authority figure.

       'A wonderful afternoon Mr. Karthik. I am Pavan Prakash. First of all, congratulations on making it this far. Take your seat and give me your resume.'

       Karthik sat down on the chair and handed over the resume to Pavan. A few silent moments passed as Pavan began going through the resume.

       'Tell me something about yourself apart from the things mentioned in your resume,' Pavan asked while going through the resume.

       'Sir, I am Karthik. I completed my Bachelor's degree in Computer Science engineering at…' Karthik pronounced the same old script eloquently without missing a single point.

       'Gentleman, please take the privilege of travelling a bit backward in time and review the question. What did I ask you exactly?' 

       'Tell me something about yourself?'

       'Are you sure?' Pavan asked, raising his brows.

       'I am sorry!  You asked me to tell me something that's not on my resume.'

       Gone… This one is also gone… The first impression is gone...

       'Who is your favourite God?' Pavan continued.

       'Lord Shiva, Sir.'

       'Imagine, If your beloved Lord Shiva miraculously appeared, and he granted you one wish, only one wish to cure one of the common ails of mankind like hunger, poverty, bad days, disease, and so on. Which one will you wish to end?'

       'I wish to end poverty.'

       'Hmm... Okay, it was nice meeting you, Mr. Karthik. Do you have any questions for me?'

       'Yes sir. If your beloved God appeared in front of you, which one would you choose to end?'

       'Good question, I was expecting whether someone would ask me the same in return. If I get a chance like this, I wish to cure demotivation. Because if I am motivated and inspired, I can easily triumph over poverty, eliminate hunger, and can sail easily on grim days with a swaggering optimism. I  expected whether anyone would give me a different answer,' Pavan sighed, 'Anyways, it's okay. Is there  anything else you would still like to know?'

       'Nothing, sir.'

      'Then go and wait in the seminar hall down on the first floor. We will announce the results of the selection soon.'

Karthik thanked him and walked into the lofty waiting hall present on the ground floor. The hall was occupied by more than one hundred candidates. All the back rows have been filled except the first three rows. He took a seat in the third-row corner, diagonally facing the stage. Deep somewhere in the corner of his mind there was a tiny hope of being selected for the job. But fear dominated him more than hope.

       Ten minutes later, the recruitment head of the company entered the room holding papers in his hands. He blindly raced towards the stage, placed the papers on the podium, adjusted the position of his mike, and gazed at the members in the hall through frameless spectacles. A dead silence prevailed in the hall. 

       'Dear candidates, may I have your attention please,' said the HR facing the candidates,  'Based upon your aggregate score secured in all the four rounds, we shortlisted a hundred people. I will read out the names of the persons who are selected. Only they can remain in this room while others can leave for the day. In case of not getting shortlisted, there's nothing to feel depressed about. You might get a better  opportunity than ours.' 

After announcing that he started reading the names aloud.  

       Karthik could listen to the sound of his own heartbeat and beads of perspiration surfaced on his forehead. The count is getting decimated one after the other, but his name has not been called so far. 

      God please have mercy upon me, please help me in getting this job. If you help me, I will come to Tirupati by foot and will even get my head tonsured… He began praying in his mind.

       The count has reached ninety. Straightaway, only ten member's names are remaining. His hands started to tremble and his feet began shaking. He crossed his fingers, surrendering his hope to luck.

       The HR took a pause, placed the papers on the podium. Took the glass half-filled with water and gulped it in a single stroke. He then took the papers back into his hands, turned the page, and started reading the remaining names. Only one person's name is leftover. A few already lost hope and started marching out of the room but Karthik remained in the room.

       'And the last candidate is...' The HR continued, everyone's jaws were wide open. 'Meenakshi!'

       Alas! It happened again. The history has repeated again. The wicked devil of rejection punched him on his face again. A day before, he attended the recruitment process for one of the major insurance companies for the role of testing engineer. Out of fifteen people in his pool, fourteen candidates got through, except him.

       With a bleeding heart, he walked out of the office building and reached the bus stop. Moments later he got into the bus and took the ticket to the last destination of the route map.

       Karthik Mahendrawada completed his bachelor's degree in Computer Science Engineering from a private engineering college in Hyderabad in the year 2012. In this particular year, the demand for a  separate state of Telangana was flying with full propulsion. He is the only child of his parents and his father once ran a successful business but encountered a huge loss. The family got bankrupt without a single penny in the savings account when Karthik was in his tenth standard. Nevertheless, how adverse the circumstances may be, his father always maintained a positive outlook towards life and this particular trait empowered him to set up a small micro-industry that specialises in manufacturing Teflon packaging materials which is used in various industries. Karthik, on the other hand, didn't inherit this kind of optimistic mindset from his father.

The bus reached the last destination of the route map. He reached his home, removed his shoes and walked into the bedroom and laid down flatly on his bed without even changing the dress. He closed his eyes but rest was impossible for his brain as the pain of rejection began tormenting him. 

       His mother walked into his room and found him lying on the bed gazing up at the ceiling fan posing like a dejected lover. This was nothing new to her.

        'Not selected again?' She asked as she sat on the bed beside him. 

      'Amma! Looks like I will never get a job,' Karthik said, burying his face in the pillow.

       'If this company didn't pick you, then some other company will take you. Don't think too much about it.'

       'I am fed up with these things. I prepare for every interview. I spend hours researching the company and the questions. No matter how good I prepare, I end up falling apart.'

       'You just started experiencing life. Not every plan works out as we want it to be. Sometimes, there are losses and failures. Doors may close, but there are always others, an unlimited number of doors.  This world is full of opportunities.'    

       'Already I passed through enough doors in this one year. I am not sure how many doors I still need to pass through.'

       'What's coming is better than what's already gone,' she patted him consolingly on the shoulder. 'Remember, when God is making you wait, he is planning to give more than what you have asked for. Just have trust in God. Now, go and fresh up.'

'Ok Amma!' A smile came on his crestfallen face. 

To be continued...