The ”Jeopardy" Interview

It was 16 December 2012 in Jaipur. I reached Jaipur with my parents as I was being called by the HCL BPO for technical recruitment. The calling party was Fortune placements, Jaipur.

I reached their office by 12 noon. I was asked to write my name and to sign on a sheet of paper, also to submit my resume and to give them my photo. They asked me if I was told about the consultation fees of Rs 500 by them. I nodded a ‘No’.

I entered in the room then where a kind of group discussion was conducted by a person-in-charge. I didn’t know his name as the process had already started. It was like ‘Sir-The Co-ordinator’ of Fortune Placements was calling our names from the resumes he was having in his hand and we had to first pronounce some words written on the white-board and then tell him what he asked. It was actually a vocab and pronunciation test. I wanted to ask the co-ordinator what he was doing when I am being called for technical but I remained silent. Then, my turn came. He called up my name. I said “Yes”. He said read out the words written on the whiteboard, I started reading –

AMERICA        MAJOR              MEASURE    TREASURE    PLEASURE CUSTOM       CUSTOMER       SHE SELLS   SOCIALIZATION   DRAMATIZATION   VISION  DIVISION …

He stopped me in between and listened to my pronunciation as if it had soothed his ears.

“Ok, then, Can you tell me what was your routine in College time ?”

It was quite a general question and all were telling the routine as quite a disciplined one. I was not satisfied by listening to their routine as mine was not like that. An engineer can never maintain a disciplined routine. When coding completes, he can sleep. When assignments are over, he can take a nap. But a clock schedule is never for him. When it comes to my routine, I simply had no routine. The same I told the class.

“Sir, my day used to end at 4 am; when I was in my college life. Up to 4 am, I used to be busy finishing my assignments. Then, 8am was my college. 8 am to 2 pm were my lectures. And if sometimes, my college spared me from assignments…”

Oh! I was again stopped in between.

“Mam, don’t get nervous and make complete sentences. You are going well.”

He was impressed by my words because it is the truth that engineering students never follow any routine because our studies are very vast and indefinite. I smiled at him. I started again and as the class heard my words, they were all smiling. At least from 60 students, one student was genuinely speaking the truth. It felt good to speak the truth and observe the smiles around. Then, the coordinator sir switched

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to other students. It was just a preparation class on how you have to answer when the real giants come. Then, they came.

I mean the HCL HR came. She was a lady. We were coupled in groups and it was again an interview. She was asking the questions and we had to answer. I was the only girl in my group.

She asked us three questions—The first one being, what was my favorite movie and why? The second question asked, what will I do if I saw an accident on the road? And the third, What was my most memorable moment in life?

The answers being: DDLJ, the favorite movie because obviously at the first view, I was influenced by the movie and the reason to watch it, again and again, being that now it soothes and tunes up my mind. For the second question, I was quite honest to her. I said,” Mam, I have never stopped to look after such a person; the reason being there are already many people to help him/her out. I am never in a hurry for office like that when I know I am right at my place.” To her third question, I answered,” Mam! It's my marriage.”

She smiled at me and asked me,” why ?”

“Mam, it is the day a woman looks perfectly beautiful and also she is given everything by her parents. A lot of shopping for her before and after, I think that’s why .”

They asked us to sit outside. The result came after almost 2 hours. After 2 hours, they had shortlisted me. But in the midst, my mom had a question for me,” If you go to Delhi, will you meet Kundan ?” This Kundan is the name of my ex-husband now. That time disputes were still going on between us. I was half–broken. And mom’s doubt shattered the last half-one remaining. Since I was shortlisted; I had to face their final round in which their HR’s conversate with you on phone. They called me over the phone.

“Congratulations, Mam”, a manly voice it was.

“Thank You, Sir “

“Now, I will ask you some questions to which you have to answer.”

“Ok...sir.”

He started with my introduction and talked to me in a casual manner.

“How was your day, here, mam? Brief your day to me.”

I briefed him and narrated him my day. It was not a problem.

“Tell me about Indian culture “

I told him certain things about Indian culture, but I myself could feel the discontinuity of words in between. I am not an English pro,obviously. After that, I was asked to give the phone to my local HR’s and they asked me to wait outside.

The room in which we were waiting had 5 more candidates who were talking to their recruitment agency about their payment and selection. And he was telling them that he will make 2 of them to clear this process this time. I told mom I wanted to go because all of it seemed prefixed. But mom wanted to stay and she wanted to hear the final results. I was not selected. We returned home with a determination of being different from the others and the hope of being selected someday in some fair recruitment drive.