Reflections: The Campus Placement (2)

As promised, the second post did not come up on the 27th. Many reasons for that, but lets get down to finishing the story first.

"May I come in sir?".

One of the persons sitting on the wooden chair looked up and nodded.

"Nice shirt"

I smiled and nodded as a gesture of appreciation.

"Nice tie."

I smiled again. Now was this a trap to get me talking or were they just trying to ease up my nerves? Before I could decide, pat came the next statemet.

"A nice combination, infact!"

"Well, thank you sir, but this is my father's taste."

Looking back now, I'd like to believe that statement was taken as one in which I did not want to take credit for what was not mine. Good for starters.

As for the details of the interview, I'd rather not publish them else some people sitting in TCS might be upset. But I was not asked a single, "not a single" technical question. The remotest relation to anything tech was,"Why is network security important?". I'd like to think that the question was a joke because after three projects in the field, I expected something better. As I walked out after about 20 minutes or so, I was numb. Was it over? But they did not test me. I mean, they simply chatted with me. Good for me because I had not prepared for more than 4 hours in totality for my placements.

That night was fun listening to a lot of other 'interview' experiences. In the mess, on the roof, outside the hostel while walking to the canteen. Animated discussions taking place amongst a bunch of guys passing one, ever shortening ciggarette amongst each other. People were just not getting tired of talking. As it became clear, Shireesh had topped the written test amongst everyone in the country that year. Add to that, he was asked about music in his interview. Looking back, I wish interviews here would be something like them too. But those ones deserve a separate entry..

Next morning I had my HR interview. I was super confident about cracking it. Talking was never an athelete's foot for me and going by how my tech interview went, this one should have been a cakewalk. But as I noted somewhere on my blog, life has the uncanny habit of catching you offguard when you are least expecting it to.

So as I found out, this 'HR' guy asks me my favourite programming language.

"C".

"Fair enough. So whats the difference between a structure and a union".

This is where Mirinda gets it right. Zor ka jhatka dheere se lage. I was not prepared to answer any technical question, be it the easiest one on the planet. Besides, I had never prepared for my placements believing that I would wait for some "better" companies before I warm up. Anyways, now all that did not matter. As I took bouncer after bouncer on my chin, I realized it was time to hook some deliveries out of the ground. The interviewer game me a sample Java code, to which of course, I could not give the correct output. Just before he would say thank you to me and easily strike my name of the list of candidates, he asked a last one.

"You dont know C. Neither can you answer C++ or Java questions. Your grades are fine. What were you doing all this time?"

Now there are some innings when you might be the 11th man coming in to bat. You have not done particularly well in your career as a cricketer and the team needs a sixer off the last ball of the innings to win the World Cup finals. Life always gives you the opportunity to do something about which you talk a lifetime. I took a deep breath and spoke my mind.

"Sir, I had better things to do in the summer than to prepare for my campus interviews, and least for a company like TCS."

Sorry Mr. Pant. I said that. I just did. As I started to reach for my certificate folder to walk out, the half-mouth-opened person sitting infront me spoke with a raised voice, "Like what?"

And as they say, the rest is history. When you are facing the last ball and you know you are good on the leg side, move your legs before the bowler releases the ball. Chances are that me might follow you and then you stand your ground and heave the ball over mid wicket for a winning six. Thats what precisely happened. Though I would not compare winning the world cup to a job in Tea-See-ess, it was definitely a good feeling talking about something I could. I kept on blurting about my networking project, my project in IIT Delhi and DRDO. My guides being the Directors of the institutions themselves. yada..yada..yada..

And so, here I was waiting for the result to be declared at night. I was mostly in hostel 2 with Saurabh Roy and Rajeev Tripathi. Sometime with Birju too. Doesn't matter. Killing time before one gets to hear that you have been hired for almost $5000 as your starting annual salary.

As Mr. Pant walked into the big room opposite his office (I forget the name of it), there was a smile on his face. As he announced that out of the 167 odd people interviewed, 117 had been selected, there was a huge round of applause. Some made it. Some did not. Most of us hugged each other as we heard our names being called out. Rajeev Kunar did not make the mark. As I walked out, Chatto came running in. I congratulated him on getting the job. He ran in to check the name list. As it turned out, he was not hired. Till date, I feel I had heard it correctly, but Chatto took it seriously. He imagined that I deliberately made fun of him. Happens. Things get sorted out with time.

As the ritual of getting kicked began to lighten up the otherwise dead night, it was as if the hostel looby had suddenly became a torture house for punishing the hardened criminals. From kicks, bumps, hugs shifting and to a bleeding Oswal (courtesy Manu Kant), it was a scene to remember. I rarely have seen so many people being soa happy at the same time. Guess it was time to celebrate and harp the fruits of one's labour all those three years.

Amongst the couple of high and low points I recall from our batch were:
1. Gaurav Singh being rejected by TCS and making it to Oracle.
2. Anoop asking people to kick him more when he made it to Infy.
3. Jujhar having to leave the final round of Tata Motors to rush back home (for a medical emergency).
4. Some placement committe people quitting as soon as they got a job.
5. And many innumerable ones which is hard to mention in a single article.

As I walked back: half sore, almost limping back to room 15, it was almost day break. For 116 people from my batch, the job had been finished. I had to get back to my unfinished job...

ps: For many of us, Mr. Pant was a hero. He worked real hard, listened to people and took decent enough decisions to win the admiration of the students. Thank you sir for all that you have done to BIT Mesra. Anyone at your place could and can easily walk off by working a tenth as hard as you do. Good job.

(L to R: Ankit Pal, Rishabh Duggal and I. The snap was taken in between the time of the written test and the final interview of TCS)

Reflections: The Campus Placement (1)

July 26, 2004 08:50: As I rubbed my eyes to see the time on the wall clock hanging on the eventful room 15 of Baba hostel ( hostel 3 to the unknown), I realized that the sun was beating down my window and it was time to get to the mess. Although hostel 3 was famous for serving food at insane hours, 9 am was pretty much the time when one should be heading towards the rusted chairs. Gulping down water from big plastic bottle which pretty much everyone carried, I lazed towards Prabir's room for a cigarrete. As luck would have it, it was locked. So was Ankit's, the adjoining room.Crap! Alright, lets get some chai. The chai that was served was no more than a sugar syrup boiled with the cheapest tea leaves available, over and over again. Nonetheless, that was the only option of getting me started for the day.

09:00: As I walked into the mess, it was uncharacteristically empty. I could see just one Baba sitting at one end of the mess, sipping the half cold chai and reading a local Hindi newspaper with such penchant as though New York had been hit again. To the uninitiated, Baba was a common term used to describe students who had failed year after year to obtain a degree. The mess helper looked at me in amazement, as though I was just landing from Mars. As I tried to get my thinking process started about the things to do that day, the helper asked me, " Ka lijiyega? Anda naahi hai aaj. Doodh bhi khatam. Ka layen?" (What shall I get for you? Eggs and milk is finished). Thank you for the good news, now that I have to prepare my taste buds to 'relish' plain bread. As I asked for butter and bread, I walked to sit with the Baba. Some company is better than none.
As the butter was being graciously applied to the bread surface, out came the question " I thought you were eligible to sit in the campus (shorthand for campus placements). Why did you not go for the company then?". What was he talking about? Company? Campus? In my preparation for GRE, I had totally forgotten that today was the day when Tata Consultancy Services, the messiah of the masses, was suppose to come for recruitment. But who cares? I was not interested in the placement process anyways. As I gathered my thoughts, I wondered if it was prudent to miss a pre placement talk (PPT). "What time is it?", I asked the Baba as though I was a war refugee who had to catch the last us to the camp. "Nau baje tha. Chaloo ho gaya hoga" ( It was supposed to begin at 9am). Crap! I gulped down my last couple of sips of the liquid that was served in the name of special chai.

09:50: Walking into the CAT (closed air theatre) was never easy with big events going on. And here I was, jostling with the crowd pouring beyond the main gate, to get in and listen to someone who would try and convince me to join a company which I never would. And as always, when in trouble in BIT, use the age old paua (jack/source). Most of the placement committe members were good friends and it wasn't long before the head of the placement committe, Mr. Pant, was staring down me with disbelief. I was sitting on the second row from the front;unshaven, in shorts and the T shirt I had slept in the previous night and a half torn bathroom slipper gracing my feet. The sea of humanity around me was all prepared: cropped hair, clean shaven, with pens and diaries to take notes (for what?), and mostly in atleast a decent shirt and pant. Without thinking too much about it, I wondered which section of the GRE preparation book I had to finish that day. As I fooled around with friends, the PPT began around 10:00.
Thats the first impression of the company I have, a PPT starting an hour off schedule. Had it been America (well, I speak from my experience with only Carnegie Mellon, but surely it is the same elsewhere in the States), they would have served Pizza and soda, given away some freebies and started a cool state of the art PPT bang on time. I would love to see that day in BIT when students walk out just because the person suppose to present the PPT is not on time.

11:00: As I walked out the totally uninspiring and boring PPT with Siddharth Mukherjee, the only point that had captured my imagination was some collaboration of TCS with Carnegie Mellon University for sending people to complete their masters degree. The rest of the colleges they mentioned were Jadavpur Univ, IISc Bangalore et al. But CMU. My dream college. Walking past the canteen, it was clear that both Siddharth and I decided to atleast give the first round. It was to be held the hi-tech building (having seen what tech really is, I would urge the BIT administration to strip off that name. Have some mercy!). Fine.

13:30: Having been through some easy computer based maths and general analytical tests, I was waiting for the results to be declared. In my quest to be the cool one, I spoke only of GRE and what it takes to get to America. TCS? Hah..
The saying goes by: Beware!! This is TCS. Trespassers will be hired.
Only two people were not selected for the interview round. That was insane. But that was bad news too. If one does not sit for the interviews after clearing them, there might be repurcursions. And in BIT, where decisions are based not on logic or merit but the whims and fancies of a few, it was prudent enough not to give the administration a reason to play with my future.

15:00: After getting off the phone with my dad and explaining to him that I 'have to' sit for the interview, I got down to getting myself presentable. Shaved. Shirt on. Pants looked good. Tie on the neck. Leather shoes. Heat. 400 people in line. Aah. Time to take a break.

16:00 - 19:00: In the time that I spent in the canteen discussing what kind of questions the interviewers might ask, I saw others were remarkably well prepared. Most of the people had parrot-ed (I take the liberty to create a new term here) staple answers to vomit out during the interview. I felt nauseatic. It was unbearable to sit with people trying to make an effort to get into a company like TCS. Just to clarify, I dont mean to demean people who work there or the company in any manner. But the fact that a company can select 100+ people in a day is proof enough that the selection procedure is flawed. I killed time till I felt it would be better to stand infront of the placement office, where the interviews were going on.
When I walked into the corridor, I saw a sea of humanity. Some glad that the ordeal was over and doling out free tips to others. Tips to chickens on how to escape the butcher in case he comes into the room. Tips which are never ever useful. Tips which you dont remember once inside. But people talked to calm down the nerves.

20:00: Just as my patience was wearing thin by not knowing exactly at what time my interview was, I saw the Bengali manager of the TCS team coming out. As I do at many occasions, and sometimes I regret doing it that way, I charged towards him,"Sir. Are you incharge of the team here?". Before he could reply, I went on " Dont you think it is advantageous to you as well of the people standing here, waiting endlessly, to know the sequence number of their interviews. Can we have some semblence of a sytem here?"
People around me froze. I am sure they were at the point to shout,"We dont know this guy". The manager stopped. Couple of placement committe members looked at me in disbelief. There are some points in life when you dont know whether your words were taken in the right spirit or not until the other person speaks.
"Thats a very good point" and he walked off. Within five minutes, the waiting candidates were given approximate timings as to when their interviews shall be held. Good. Mine was in 30 minutes. Finally, the five hour wait was suddenly coming to and end.
" Tu marwaega beta kisi din. Chup nahin reh sakta?" (Cant you shut up ever? You shall get us all into trouble), retorted Geetanjali. She was on the placement committe and hoping to get through TCS. Fair enough. I should shut up now. But my unusual action on that moment was discussed until my batch graduated.

2130: That was the time when my name was called out. As I walked in, I suddenly realized that with my show off confidence and rhetoric, being rejected was not an option. I had to give it my best shot irrespective of what I think about the company. I walked into Mr. Pant's office and stood outside the attached side room for somebody to signal to me.
"May I come in sir?".
As I stood at the threshold of my first ever job interview, I saw two visibly tired and disenchanted personalities sitting in a hot room with an antique fan rotating from the high ceiling.

What happens next? Well, the TCS placement procedure was spread over two days and hence it is historically correct to end the post tomorrow.

The Shooting Star

Picking up the towel from my previous post on the Volleyball game, it was our first day of practise. After much communication and fight to get a ball, we finally had three today. As the clock turned to the 17th hour of the day, I decided it was time to collect everyone to come down to the field.

There was much anticipation for the practise throughout the day. Manish had come to my desk and introduced Mr. Reddy who was also interested in playing volleyball. It was as if I had become the pointsman for the game. Lisa had sent out an email to everyone announcing the practise session and Jayaram was pinging me from 4:30 onwards. Richie went back home to change early, to be in time for the game. Frank, Laura and Brian had got their sports gear along. There was a sense of anticipation. I went with Eli to discuss some naunces of the game after lunch.

At 5pm nobody was ready to go. Everyone was swamped with work but by 5:20 some people were down. I went upto Laura and almost pushed her to come with us for sometime. At 5:31pm, we reached the courts. There were some other people practising and team iOfense joined them on the other side of the court. In the reshuffle, Laura and I were on the other side i.e. playing against iOfense.

Before this evening, I was happy about developments in life. I rode the Hummer to DC. Met Prateek at 'Fur', one of the biggest disks in DC. Saturday night was rocking at Ned Devine. I also got couple of my topics of the MS paper done that day. And here I was playing volleyball by the lake. I wonder how a shooting star is just before its termed 'shooting'. How does one differentiate between more than average happening events in life and the flicker before an oil lamp goes out? Sometimes events happen so quickly that it takes time for human minds to comprehend the situation.

As the game progressed, iOfense was clearly the better team. We lost two games on the trot. My team did not want to go back losing. So a fast version of the game was suggested to finish up in less than 10 minutes. Every point won fetches the winning team a point on the scoreboard regardless of who serves. On the 5th point of the game we served. The score read 1-3 against us. The point was a little longer than usual when, while the ball was still in their court, both Manish and Brian went for the ball to smash it into our side. I jumped up to defend and was hoping against hope that they would miss the ball.

They did miss the ball. Both of them clashed in mid air. Brian, around 24 and atheletic, and Manish, 38 and a visibly non atheletic personality, fell on the sand. Celebrations on our side for a point well won. Just as I turned around, I saw people gather around Manish. He was crying out in pain. He was on his back, eyes closed, and unable to move at all.

At first look it seemed like a muscle rupture or something minor. As people tried to touch his leg, he shrieked in pain like never before. His lower right leg was almost perpendicular to his straight body. It reminded me of a video I saw a few years back when this boxer broke his leg while trying to kick the other guy (yeah, dunno why? and that too in a boxing match). Anyways, I tried to convince myself that it was nothing serious.

Almost everyone had the same version of how it happened with a twist of their own. I got Manish some water from Frank's bottle. Some people spoke to Manish to soothe him down, some caught up on their breath and some just watched. He was in some real pain. That was when one realized that it was time to call 911.

While some people took charge of the situation, I spoke to Laura about how did she feel about the game. Seemed like she played it for the first time today. In between, I was speaking to Manish too and telling him that everything is fine, but with 12 other people senior and better at handling such situations, I did not feel the need to take matters into my hand. Meanwhile, Laura and I spoke of the events coming up for us in the near future.

As the ambulance arrived in about 15 minutes, I went on the ground clutching Manish's hand. He gripped it strongly and was crying in pain as the medics tried to put him on the stretcher.

Such is the relation between pain and humans that it makes heroes out of ordinary men in extraordinary situations. As I tried to soothe Manish saying that everything would be fine, he murmured," I know I will be fine. I am worried about the future. My wife. My children".

At that moment, I got a glimpse into how a person being carried away on a stretcher possibly feels. I am sure Manish is fine now and that its nothing life threatening. But the point is how his pain is smaller than his concern for his near and dear ones. How a jawaan who takes a bullet to his heart might possibly be thinking of his wife, his child and their future in the last seconds that God gave him to recapitulate his life and make a last wish. It reminded me of when I, at 10 years and 33 days, walked into the ICU of Mulchand Hospital to see my father for the first time in three weeks after he had a series of heart attacks. The first thing that came out of his mouth before I could speak was." How were your exams? Study well. Studies are very important if you want to become something in life". I took that sentence to heart, and though I never topped any class or school or college, I believe the larger meaning of doing what you do with all diligence and perseverance was conveyed.

Life comes at you fast. Act now. Dont wait to say to someone that you love them. Dont wait on things to happen for you. Dont act in a manner that none would feel bad when something bad happens to you. Life is short. Live it because a point in a game can change your life.

p.s.: I just got a call from Mr. Reddy saying that Manish has a fractured hip bone and that he would be operated upon tomorrow. His wife cannot drive and hence she has not gone to the hospital yet. There are some other relatives taking care of him currently. I would go to see him tomorrow afternoon. I am not sure if he would be able to or willing to play any outdoor game in the future. I pray he does.

( L to R: Me, Citlalli, Jamar and Nick)

The Cow Eats Beef

As I flipped from one side to the other on my bed, lazily gazing out at the beautiful Sunday morning, the phone rang. Before picking up the phone, I wondered who would it be calling at 11 am on a free day. The brain decided not to exercise itself and I walked blankly towards the phone, clearing my throat to speak for the first time that day.

Nick Kosmas. He is one of my good friends at INI and typically Nick, Citlalli and I with a bunch of other people would hang out on holidays. Did we have any plans today? Without too much thought, I picked up the phone.

"Hey, I'd pick you up in about half an hour. Is that OK?".

Was I forgetting something? Did we have to go somewhere? Before I could ignite my engine of thoughts, came the answer, " Andy would be waiting for us. Lets not be late".

Ohh!! Andy. Yeah. Andy Alexander. I met him and his wife Suzanne at the City Reformed Presbyterian Church opposite the Phipps conservarory in Pittsburgh. As usual, Nick Citalli, Jamar and I had gone to downtown Pittsburgh to see the Carnegie Science Museum one sunday. At about 5 pm, we decided to watch a movie later in the evening. But Nick and Citlalli wanted to go the Church before that. Sure. Why not? Infact, I used to visit the Church on Christmas Eve in India. All of us agreed to go directly for the movie from the Church. And that how I was reintroduced to the Church.

I slept through some parts of the talk in the Church. Embarrassed, I ran down to get some coffee after the prayers. As is the ritual, I said 'Hello' to everyone who passed me. The rest of my gang was waiting in the car. As I turned back to rush, I almost dropped the coffee on the lady behind me. And thus, I met the Suzanne Alexander.

A couple of weekends and I knew many people in the Church. An Indian lady, Gayatri-who was a Hindu,visited the Church too. Nice people. Good food. Nice service and questions about faith and religion being debated. Amongst all these people, somehow I spoke to Suzanne and Andy a lot. By the second weekend, Andy had invited 5 of us to his place. Grace and another guy, Roger, completed the list.

So, here I was. Standing infront of my bedroom window wondering what would be on the menu today. It certainly is a good feeling to know that one does not have to cook for a Sunday. Lets see: there should be some salad, some bread, something to drink, some form of meat. That should be sumptuous. As I got excited about the food going to my near empty stomach, I realized it was time to get running and hit the road.

As we picked up Grace from her place, it was the 5 of us in Nick's Toyota. I was sandwitched between Grace and Roger in the back, while Citlalli was navigating and playing with the directions in the front. Andy's place was about 25 miles from Pittsburgh and we were on time. Since all of us met as a group in the Church only, the conversations hovered our own countries, traditions and beliefs. Nick was a Greek America, Citalli from Mexico, Grace a Christian from Muslim Indonesia, Roger from China and I, a Hindu from India. Even though I was a pro in America now, I had a tough time explaining how big India is, how the languages, the topography, the culture, the people, the color, the weather; everything changes from the north to the south and from the west to the east every 300 kilometers. In the heady cocktail of cultures around the world, we realized that we were on the wrong route, going away from Andy's place. All of a sudden, we had so much time to spend in the car, talking!!

After calling the Alexanders thrice and overshooting the correct exit twice, we finally made it. The place is in the middle of a wooded hilly terrain. A front and back lawn, picture perfect house and a huge black dog aptly named 'Bear'. As we exchanged the traditional greetings with the Alexanders and their kids, I was relieved to see a "home" with kids, dog, husband, wife, tv, sofas et al. Student life can sometimes make you believe that the present has been the everlasting truth. A welcome change. We talked, played with Bear and made ourselves "at home".

Lunch time. Suzanne was leading us to the delicacies of the day. There was a huge fruit/boiled veg salad, bread, boiled eggs, custard, cheese, a huge cake, sausages and beef. Wow. It was almost 16 hours since something had been added to my bulging underbelly. And then, without a warning, IT happened.

There are some moments in life when you are hit by something hard whilst you are least anticipating it. There are moments when your next word is awaited by a silent, open-mouthed anticipating audience. There are moments when you thought that the obvious was being questioned. Here I was, tasting the delicacies laid infront of me with my wide open eyes; the salivary glands already working overtime.

"Are you a Hindu, Ujjwal?"

Now what was that meant to be? Yes, I am. But here I was, standing in the kitchen of a Christian family, with 4 other ( I hate to catagorize) Christian friends. Why? Was it wrong to be one? Was a Hindu not supposed to be invited to a exclusive Christian lunch? Did everyone present there not know I was one? Was my going to the Church meant that I was suppose to be one? Being from the subcontinent pushes you onto a belligerent-defensive posture whenever the topic of religion comes your way; unanticipated.

"Yes Suzanne. I am one. Why?"

On hearing this, her face grew red. As I prepared myself to think of words incase I needed to say something politely, she spoke.

" Oh, I am so sorry but..."

But? But what? The pain of not knowing what was behind her mind had now started irritating me. Meanwhile, everyone had stopped from what they were doing. Every eye was fixed on me. My friends knew I was an Indian, a Hindu. Why were they not serving their meals and walking to the table?

"..I have nothing vegetarian in the meal. I know Gayatri is a..."

I had lost what she was saying. Probably that Hindus do not eat meat or something. And there was beef on the menu. Cows being sacred to most Hindus, beef is definitely not a welcome sight. There are popular folklores about how the cow is considered as a mata (mother) to us Hindus, how riots have been started by butchering them, how it is the pure form et al. Snap back to reality. I could hear nothing what Suzan was saying, though my eyes could see her speaking to me, with an apologetic flicker in her eyes. Before the complex situation could get unbearable, I did what I should have done a while ago.

" I eat beef. Dont worry. I eat almost everything under the sun".

There was a sense of relief across the room. I felt like a boulder had been dropped off my shoulders.

"He is not a true Hindu..he he..", Nick quipped.

The environment was lightened by the remark. The rest of the people carried on serving themselves. We had some great conversations on the table that afternoon. Inevitably, religion, the war, India, Hindu-Muslims, American culture, China etc were the favorites. Everything seemed so good because of the tasty food, thanks to Suzanne. It was almost 5 pm before we all left, to attend the Church service at 5:30 pm.

On my way back, as I saw the sun turning orange, I realized how much is there to life beyond our mundane routine. Also, a lesson leant on how not to assume things, not to imagine the implied and be polite but frank with people. I was a little ashamed too, wondering about the origins of my thoughts on what Suzanne had implied when she asked that question. Time to move on..

Clarification: I used to eat beef before that day and for my friends who believe I threw away my religious beliefs that afternoon, let me tell you, I had none.

Volleyball

A few days back I noticed that my calender reflected "Dulles Summer Picnic : July 27". In the barrage of invites we get, I had forgotten about what this event was? It was supposed to be a picnic/get together of all the people working in the company for a game of volleyball and lunch.

Lunch? Thats great!. I dont have to think about what to take to office on that morning. I, as is the practise, would stuff my stomach up so that I dont need any fillers until night. And you get couple of hours off from work too.

Volleyball? What the heck was that for? Do we play against someone ( I always imagine myself engaging in any kind of activity that I am suppose to 'attend'). I asked Ryan, the other intern, and he certainly did not have an answer for me. The thought was in the back of my head until I received an email couple of days back.

The email read something like:

"...The teams are 6 players each and there needs to be at least 1 girl on the team....
For the winning team, each player will recieve a $50.00 Best Buy gift certificate... "

First thoughts? You guessed it. $50.00. Nice.

6 people needed? Not a problem. I promptly got onto the office messenger and messaged Richie that he was on my team ( no questions asked). Richie is the always-enthu-yo-man-I-am-the-coolest- guy in office ( and he has some serious style; great drummer and body builder). Having him on the side ensured that I would look forward to playing the game simply because of his live wire nature (although I have never played it for more than 20 mins ever). In the evening, I walked upto Mike (yeah, the same Mike from the previous post). "You're in my team" Again, no questions asked. Yesterday, I asked Frank if he would like to be on the team too ( He is young and tall and one of my managers). One more in. Frank has a great spirit and would definitely be an asset to the team. While I was discussing whom to take next, with Richie, Chris said he would play. We play a lot of foosball with Chris and hence there was no question of saying no to him. Lauren, who sits next to Richie and is one of the very very few girls here, agreed after some cajoling.

Great. Now we have a team. We kept Ryan as an extra, so that he does not feel left out. Mailed Lisa that we would like to name the team as "iOfense". Hmm. She replied, and as is the case with personal assistants to VPs, she CCed to the entire office.

Great again. On my next 'chai' trip, my Indian friends surrounded me and asked why I did not take them into 'my' team. Well, it was fast decision and we just didn't. No issues. But Lisa inadvertantly had sparked off something. This morning I had my mailbox full of I-wanna-play-to-and-I-pressed-the-reply-to-all-button mails. Within sometime it was clear that we just had Lauren as only the girl who would have to double up for 2 teams. What? Are people nuts? What if the two teams clash? How does one go about from there?

Alright. Best option to hunt for girls in a tech firm : HR. And who would be better than Seema. She was the one who conducted our intern-join-in-orientation. Expectations soar and then come down within a minute. She would be out of office. But I could try Laura who works with her. Laura agrees.

Reply-to-everyone."We have Laura in my team". What? Who is she? Can she play? How did you know her? She is not from our group. I also want to play. That mail seemed to have further awakened the player within everyone in office and broke the record of maximum mails received in a day.

By evening today, we have 3 teams (with 6 players each) from our division (there are many such divisions, God knows how many opponents we have). Lisa's daughter might be filling in for the 3rd female. Why? Come to me, I will get you another female player from HR. But who cares?

I am looking forward to the 27th. We should be getting some practise sessions in the coming days. It should be fun. $50. Bring it on!!

DC'ed

In recent weeks I have visited Washington DC, the command and control centre of the world, quite a few times now. To be precise, thrice. But it was not before the third weekend into my internship that I realized I was really heading towards DC.

The most recent was was this last Saturday. Four of us headed towards Adam's Morgan in the heart of DC. Since I had come to this region, I was filled up with stories about this drunkard's paradise. We stopped on our way to collect Mc burgers at Fairfax, since food was supposed to be EXPENSIVE in downtown DC.

22:45: That was when AP, one of his friends and I finally met Mike. The poor guy was told 21:45 as the meeting time by none other than me, but we more than made it up with a free beer for him. The place is a mile of pubs on both sides of a small packed road, something like a posh south Delhi market with sophisticated whites, blacks, Asians et al. packing the place. Now, where to go? Madam Morgans, the dance pub was jam packed and had a cover charge of $7. Naa, lets bar hop. So we got into one of the busier looking pubs and got ourselves a drink each. After my first 'Long-Island-Iced-Tea', my inhibitions on shooting off glances to the stereotyped 'horny american bitches' was gone. Jinn with lime and another iced tea did not help either in pulling me down. Oh, and I was sporting an all new look: cropped hair and a trendy beard. Go Tiger.

00:00 or something: We were on our way to another one of the bars. "Excuse me", I heard a girl shriek from behind. Anticipation, excitement, turnaround and finally disillusionment: she was calling for AP's friend. It was the alcohol working on me. But what I heard was certainly not my imagination. " Haaaaaaiii. I am about to marry this month and I was wondering if you could kiss me pleeeezeee". The lady, mid 20s, was definitely drunk and I moved on. But hey, where is my gang. Turnaround, and holy fuck!! He was really kissing her. And on the lips.

What? How? No. Not happening. Actually, happening. But why not me? Most people go into denial mode when confronted with an amazing fact/visual. My case was not too different. Before I could answer my dirty mind, those bunch of girls passed me singing and smoking. What the hell was that? Rushed back to my gang. "Oh, they were having a bachelorate party and were drunk." So? So, they were open to anyone kissing them since for the rest of their lives they would have to be content with the same male organ. Hmm..interesting. Lemme give it a shot. Passed by the girls, nothing happens. Shit!! "Dude, you gotta talk". Golden advice. Before I could, the same lady with her friends dawned upon us (actually, onto AP's friend) like bees on honey,"Listen, I am sorry if I embarrased you. Where are you guys from?".

Pause. That was the moment to be seized. Talk. Grab the attention. See where you go. Jump Ujjwal. The next 60 seconds would be talked about a lot after tonight.

"India". I almost shouted and jumped into the conversation. A couple of questions more and then the moment,"Would you like to kiss me too?"

Pause again. What? Was this for real? Is this the American Saturday night dream coming true? Again, dont loose it now and dont think too much. Do it and brag about it later.

"Sure". A peck was planted on her right white cheek. "Oh no, on the lips". And she closed her eyes.

Pause. Hmm. Now this was like offering Biryani instead of Pulao to a famine starved person.

Action done. Nothing unusual. Suddenly feel a little low. Questions as usual. Did I piss her off? Was my kiss alright. How was she feeling? Are people watching on the road?

"Would you like to feel my booty?".

Pause. I swear I did not understand her question. I was still wondering if this is some historic moment where I am kissing someone unknown, was I finally good at hunting in pubs ( or rather be hunted down). Cut! Come to reality. She held my left hand and pressed it against one of her organs better put to use for feeding an infant, but I did not really mind my role at that moment. I was almost about to gasp for some air when a couple of her other friends came in and started talking to mine. Who cares?

Pause. I would have almost loved to carry it on from here, but as you know, these things are like waves. As soon and high as they rise, they take you down within a split second.

"So who wants have my PIE tonight?", asked one of the friends of the lady I was with (hmm..did I say 'with' :)). Aah, let her talk, who cares. NOOOO. What? PIE? Was she serious? I looked at my friends and they were NOT AT ALL interested. Shit. How can you give up a fortune which you never had all your lifetime and some cocky old person left his heritage to you? How could you let go this moment. No my friends, come on!!

As it would be, the mind won over our hearts. But here I was, with reinvigorated energy and as they say, I had tasted blood. I went from one pub to another, drinking like mad. I know I lost my mind that night, but then, that was the plan. All the dancing, singing, drinking, talk was gelling into a big huge scene of chaos for me. AP, finally around 2 am, decided it was time. Walked back to his car. From there on, I remember things in patches. I was able to guide AP to my home and talked to him normally; thats what he tells me. I woke up on my couch sometime on Sunday. The sun was out in full force, I was damn thirsty and the liqour of last night was hammering my head. Hmm..not good. But within this madness, as I walked towards my bed, I knew I had my next blog entry ready. Dont sleep forever Ujjwal, the WC 2006 final starts in sometime; I told myself before passing out again.

ps 1: The first time I went to DC, it was with AP and Anish (my junior from BIT). We must have walked close to 15 miles that day exploring all main monuments and a couple of museums.

ps 2: The second time was with Anish. DC museums, Chinatown, food at Chipotle and DC at night. Then couple of homosexuals following us, we dashing to our cars and running away at the Vienna Metro station. Coming back home to drink like we never had. I had 10 bottles (355 ml each) of Corona and Anish broke his record by having 5.

India Blasted

I wasted half a day today listening to people in office chatter about the blasts (my American boss enquired if anyone I knew was injured). Another American member on my team jokingly said," Man, India has got a lot of patience to deal with these people". Does India really not do much about these terrorists? Are we really a soft state? Topics which I used to neglect back home are coming back to haunt me here. Really, does India need people from outside coming in to lead the party which bargained for our freedom (and division). Does India not have leaders like Indira Gandhi anymore, who could foresee the benifits of finishing the enemy altogether? Does India have a problem of neglecting problems too close to home and is the media also to blame for it for the fear of igniting communal passions? Why do we allow all these Bangladeshis in? Why do the politicians support the Maoists implicitly? Why cant we make an expressway between Bangalore and Mysore? Why is the IT industry looked upon as anti farmer? What are we doing about everything? What can we do about it? Is there hope, atleast for the next generation or do we just keep cribbing about it and migrate to the US? Is it fine to order big macs when millions of children in my country are going to sleep hungry? Even after almost 60 years post independence, why do we have more poor people below the poverty line than we started off with? On 15th August next year, we shall celebrate the golden jubilee of independence of the largest democracy in the world. I wonder sometimes if am I sounding like a BJP guy? Or is it that I think they have the sound vibes that I want to hear? I wonder where my beloved country is headed to? I wonder..