The Interview

I wiped the sweat from my forehead and looked at the weird face in the mirror. It was hard to believe that the stranger who stared back with bloodshot eyes, was me!

I looked at least twenty years older than I was.

I was a nervous wreck and there was no denying it; who wouldn’t be, if he was facing the toughest interview of his life? 

I had been rehearsing my lines and experimenting with mock interviews with my wife as the interviewer, but with little success. Exasperated with my strange behavior, the tired wife suggested; “Why don’t you just go ahead and do your best? God willing, you will succeed.” 

How could I explain my predicament to her? Though I had in my life so far, faced many interview boards and came out blazing with flying colors, this one is going to be different and perhaps the biggest of them all.

The night before the “D” day, I lay awake; sleep alluding me with the fear of the arrival of dawn and must have dozed off in the wee hours. I had my share of nightmares and one of them was coming out of the interview room with tears in my eyes. When the wife woke me up, rather rudely by shaking me, I was startled to find that it was around 8 ‘O’clock.

Arriving at the appointed place, I sat outside the closed door waiting for my turn and rehearsed the line for the hundredth time. I tried to relax and stole a glance at the stern-faced old lady sitting at the reception desk. She stared back with a piercing look and appeared to be shaking her head as if to indicate that you do not stand a chance!

The poker-faced peon heard the bell and opened the door to let out a ragged but relieved looking man. I was tempted to stop the man and ask him about the questions in the interview. But the peon looked around and called my name rather loudly that my thumping heart skipped a beat or two.

I took a deep breath and praying to my family deity, peeked inside and with legs shaking, went inside to face the three good men occupied the sprawling deck.

The questions were on the expected line; what is the level of your education? What is your monthly income? How many dependents do you have? What time do you reach home? Does your wife Work? If yes, who reaches home first?  

They studied my face and appeared to be weighing the answers to each question as if to catch me on the wrong foot. But, I survived! I stole a glance at my watch and found that it had taken ten minutes – more than I anticipated. 

Believe me, it was the toughest ten minutes of my life!

Finally, the old man who sat in the middle, took my file, shifted through it and selected a page and wrote something and pushed it towards me. 

I took the paper with shaking hands and trying to control my nervousness, I looked at it.

 

In clean bold letters, he had written, “Admit”.

I came out of the room heaving sigh of relief and holding the tender hand, led my three-year-old daughter to the steps leading to the altar of learning!