Amit Daga .. who showed me light when all was dark ….
My teacher Prof. Ram Koner who inspite of all my shortcomings has been there whenever I have needed him.
THE STORY SO FAR
Prakarsh Tiwari is doing his MBA at the Indian Institute of Welfare and Management . He is the events co-ordinator of his batch , has got a cool gang Badmaash Company which has Preety , Vibha , Nitu , Ankita as its other members . Life is almost perfect . Only trouble is that he is in love with a Brahmin girl who studied with him in Class 12. He doesn’t realize this till the third year of his graduation when he has a chance meet with Rishika who was here to do a project at ISI . When she was leaving for Delhi after completing the project, she left with two things , her project report , and Prakarsh’s heart . However with placements season beginning for both Prakarsh and Rishika … things will only get complicated.
OF SOMETHING CALLED LOVE
The love story of a Brahmin boy … its complicated.
TO MISPLACE AND THEN PLACE
Just as a newly wed bride waits for her first ever kiss to learn which mouth freshener her husband uses, a fresher waits for the placement season to get placed and finally convince all around him that the money he spent on his MBA was worth it . Err .. on second thoughts it was a terrible analogy , but then you don’t expect a Brahmin to be more voyeuristically explicit , do you ?
As an MBA you learn a lot of jargons , but none is cooler than the humbling “PROFILE”. Profile is the coolest word that you can find in the MBA jargon lexicon. Even when a student fails to make the shortlist of the company because he failed to secure 60 percent that was mandated by the company , all he has to do is to say , “Arrey profile sahi nahi tha .” When some guy lands up in a job which pays a salary that even his housemaid wouldn’t care to envy , you generally hear him telling to his friends at some party , “ Who cares about the salary , it’s the profile that matters.” The marginal utility of this word doesn’t cease even when you are moving up the corporate ladder . If your present role has started to bore you and you seek a change , all you have to do is approach your project manager , scrunch your face and say , “ Sir , Profile kuch jam nahi raha .” Nine times out of ten you will get the much needed promotion that you were seeking to finance the new platinum ring that you wife was asking for. One thing for sure , if Shashi Kapoor would have been a MBA , he would have easily dumped Nirupa Roy and rather replied , “ MERE PAAS PROFILE HAI .” Thus you see the word profile is a God send term . To the less deserving , its use offers a chance to have their necks craned above the commonplace , to the movers and shakers it gives an opportunity to set up their aspirations two notches higher . As an MBA we are told to use this word a lot , more so when the placement season is around . Not only does it reflect that we are serious about our career , it also shows that MBA is not all about big bucks , its also about the quality of job . The latter point as you may have figured out is bull shit . But then believe me, so is MBA .
Here I would like to add that as an events coordinator my last event PARADIGM 2010 , our annual alumni meet was to be held on 18TH December of this month . Thankfully the junior events team rose up to the occasion and inspite of having their first semester examinations at hand , they never for once asked me to do anything . It was probably then that I realized that we had struck upon the right people in the junior team.
So all I had to do was get a job now and then everything else would fall into place. Little did I realize what lay in store for me this placements season.
It all started one fine November 15th dawn, Monday . Two banks were in line ICIUCMe Bank and the other SHITTY bank . There was another rating agency , CRYSEAL , but I had failed to make its interview shortlist. We were asked to report at 6.00 am sharp in the morning. But the guys from ICIUCMe landed at 7.00 am . Three guys landed up giving fake smiles to everyone who cared to offer one in return . One of them was too fat , the other too thin , and the third looked like the exacted weighted mean of the previous two . He had a strange look in his eyes as if he himself did not know why he was here . The fat man took over and barked , “We wont discuss profiles , we wont discuss salaries. Lets get on with the group discussions.” A silent wave of disappointment ran through us . Profile discussion is an MBAs favourite past time . Still the students prepared themselves for the GD. Batches of 10 students kept going inside the Conference room and coming out . The guys were announcing the GD results almost instantaneously . I ,as expected ,did clear the GDs. Some of the more deserving students , Sushovan Roy ,Santanu Bhoumik Vibha Keshri and a lot more did not clear it . I was shocked . Appalled . It was probably the first time that I questioned whether I seriously wanted to be in bank that does not know what it has rejected . However like all students , I wanted my first job , and so prepared myself for the interviews . It was around 10.30 when the GDs were over and the interviews about to start that the guys from SHITTY bank came , offered the pre placement talk and asked us to prepare for the GDs. But all of a sudden , all the students realized that the ICIUCMe guys were working on some plan . After interviewing the first fifteen students alone , they produced a list of the chosen candidates , nine of them to be precise . The idea was clear , don’t let SHITTY bank pounce on the students and test them . Further round of selections were announced . My interview with ICIUCMe guys was set up pretty late and by that time I had also cleared the GDs of SHITTY Bank . I was absolutely certain of my selection at ICIUCMe , looking at the candidates who had been selected so far. Enakshi Poddar , the girl who was volunteering for the day , announced my name . I entered the Indian Airlines room . Two people were waiting for me . “Here we go .” I said silently to myself . My first job interview ……
After around 10 minutes I was asked to leave . I was satisfied with my interview . But suddenly Kushumika Ganguly of the senior placement team rushed towards me , “Prakarsh , they are asking for you .” I was surprised . Probably I had left my pen . As I entered the room again , the thin guy said, “Prakarsh , are you mobile , because this job will require mobility .” I nodded in agreement. After that the thin guy got busy with his Blackberry not caring a damn about my presence . The fat guy continued , “Prakarsh , our job will require a little bit of selling , I hope you are fine with it .” I said , “Yes”. Always in an interview , say the things the interviewer wants to hear . He added , “ Prakarsh , you have done your internship in Bandhan Microfinance . What if we put you in our microcredit department .” The thin guy was still blabbering on his cell .I tried not to think about him. I did not need to lie about this one . “ Sir , I would not ask for anything better .” He nodded . As I left the room for the second time , two things were on my mind . First , I knew that my next job would be at ICIUCMe bank . Second , I decided that if I ever take an interview , I will switch off my cell phone.
Prof Lakshman Koner , our head of placements ,came two hours later to announce the final list of selected candidates . He announced five names , but mine was not one of them . I was speechless . I didn’t know what to say . The only piece of good news was that Nikunj and Arobindo from my group Badmaash Company were selected. And yes , I was elated that Sushovan Roy got into CRYSEAL , his dream job. When I was returning on the train , I wanted to cry . I wanted to ask “ Why me ?” My next interview was slated for tomorrow , for a market research firm IMRBe . I didn’t want to give the interview , there was no point . That night I clouldnt sleep . Dejected and frustrated I logged into GTALK . Amit Daga , my immediate senior who was currently working at SBI was online . I pinged him…
Me: Hey I didn’t get into ICIUCMe .
Amit : Congrats. Tu bach gaya.
Me: Huh ?
Amit : Did you really want to work in that shit place?
Me : No .. Now I don’t .
Amit : Dekho Prakarsh , do you really think that they will give you a finance profile . No they wont.
Me: Neither would IMRBe.
I knew Amit’s views on this . Even days before IMRBe was to come to campus , Amit had told me , “Prakarsh , I don’t know why , but I think IMRBe is best suited for you .” I had asked him the reason . He just replied. “ I don’t know . But its my gut feel .”
Amit : Suno prakarsh , please go and give the interview your best shot . Let me tell you many would kill for this job.
Next day almost reluctantly I entered the auditorium at 10.30 am . The interviews were to start at 11.00 am . nobody form my group was present since they had not applied for the job . I felt very lonely. I decided that whenever any of my friends had an interview , I would always be by their side . Always . Sandipan Chakroborty , took a seat next to me . “ If they didn’t select you , then we know they have no clue what they are missing . “ Sreekanta Dash , my batchmate nodded , “You are a benchmark Prakarsh.” Somehow I did not feel bad anymore . May be something better was in store for me . At 12.15 Debjit informed me that I was next in line . “Prakarsh , Prof Koner is calling you .” I left the auditorium . Prof Koner was standing outside the interview room . He looked at me , “What did the ICIUCMe guys say ?” I told him everything . He did not talk for a few minutes . Then he continued , “Listen , when you answer questions here , please do it slowly . You talk very fast.” Then he looked at me . “ And what kind of coat is this ? You look like a girl .” I changed my coat . Before I entered the torture chamber, Debjit wished me best of luck and opened the door for me . I saw a gentleman with a laptop . He signaled me to enter. “Phew , here we go again.” My second job interview.
When Shreya Dasgupta and Ishita Dutta of the junior events team ,had wanted to opt out from the interview of the events team citing time constrains as the reason I had replied . “ Listen , MBA is not about cramming notes , 99 percent of what you will learn will be outside the class.” Thankfully they had agreed against withdrawing their names . Now as I sat in the interview (that lasted a mammoth 55 minutes), and answered questions that ranged from what flavor icecream should I launch to why should Parachute not launch a shampoo with the same name., I wished they were here to see how right I was .
At 6.35 pm Prof Lakshman Koner entered the auditorium , and said , “The following people as of now are out of the placements process.”(That meant these guys had been selected by IMRBe)
Anirban Basu
Sumantra Biswas
Swagata Ray
Pranay Mishra
Prakarsh Tiwari…..
As he said my name , he looked at me and gave a smile . I smiled back . …..
I have lost count of the congratulatory messages and calls I received that day . As to myself , I was just relieved , not elated because I was a finance guy and the profile offered to me was Market research. But the message that I saved was from the guy without whose advise , I would not have been sitting for the interview… AMIT DAGA. It ran , “You may be a little sad. But the happiness will be realsed at the end of the year. Heartiest Congratulations . AMIT DAGA.”
At night , Rishika called me , “ Hey hero .. congrats …. Ab toh job lag gayi ….masti karo.” We chatted for another 10 minutes . As I was about to sleep , I thought about what lay ahead ? Two years after the job I will tell Rishika what I felt for her .. and then……..
My cell phone beeped , Sangeeta called . “Prakarsh congrats yaar . Mast laga sun ke . After talking for 5 minutes , there was a strange lull . I continued,” Koi problem hai kya ?”
She didn’t speak for sometime. Then she said , “Prakarsh , they have found a boy for her .”
She did not need to explain who the her was . For me in this world , there was only one HER.
I also realized that if I waited for two more years , I may be changing the nappies of Rishika’s son or daughter . But all that I would listen in gratitude was , “pyaare mama ji “
I then took a decision that changed my life forever.
PART 6 … WILL END EVERYTHING FOR HIM….
COMING SOON।
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