Today as I'm about to take one more step forward in my career, I decided to travel few steps back to understand the very reason of my today. People say it’s the almighty God who'd been with me, taking me through those most memorable steps of my life. They go way further to say that for how I think and behave, if not for God, I would have lost the battle long back.
20th Sept 2006
__________________________________
Something in the morning made me realize that today is 20th Sept, the day when I had my first interview for a software job.
(tring.......tring.......tring.......tring) (Oh i loved the classic mobile ring those days)
"Hello", I Said.
"Oh you are awake! I thought to wake you up.", well, this was a routine call to wake me up so that I'm not late to the BPO I worked for; My girl friend.
"Sweetheart, I have an interview today. I need to go early."
"Today? I thought you have the interview tomorrow. ", She was surprised!
"No, its today..... Chalo, ill talk to you later, I'm getting late.” I was rushing to get ready.
"Oh sorry, All the best dear. Do well, n call up once you are done.” she was more excited than I was. She had all the reasons to be so. It was my first interview with a software firm after all.
"Sure, thanks! bye", and I rushed into the bathroom.
My bike, the Power Machine - as I call it, was ready to serve me for a very important day of my life. A ride through the Marina beach road through Thiruvanmayur to the IT Highway under the scorching heat was definitely an undesired ride, but considering the excitement I was in, it was all fair.
I parked the bike outside the gate and gazed at the huge building of this company. "This is where I want to be", I thought. Not because of the fame of it or the payment it makes, but because my best friend worked there.
Closing my dream box, I moved ahead to the security house at the gate.
Me: Sir, I'm here for an off campus interview today.
Lady Security (Confused): Interview? We didn't get information about any interview today.
Me: Yes, there is an interview. I got a mail about that.
I took the print out of the email and showed it to her to confirm and make a point to her that I was correct.
Lady Security (Smiling): Sir, the interview is on 20th Sept sir.
Me (keeping my stand): Yes, that's right. So, where shall I go? (Her smile slowly transformed to laughter)
Something struck me then. "Gosh, I haven't seen the calendar from the morning today." I turned around the security room looking for a calendar and realized that, everywhere, I go with a smart phone that is smart enough to tell me the date as well. In no time I took my phone out only to see that today was 19th Sept 2006. As dumb as I could look, I said sorry and started my way back home.
20th Sept 2006(Yeah, the real day!)
__________________________________
Everything was the same today like the virtual today that I had yesterday! The same wake up call, wishes from girl friend (Oh yea, she hadn't recovered from her laughter therapy yesterday!), rush to get ready, power machine, scorching heat. Thankfully, the security weren't the same.
There was a huge queue today. All of us entered the security room to sign and get our temporary tags. Then the queue took us straight to the cafeteria.
No, they didn't arrange any food for us there. This would have been the first ever company conducting their interview in cafeteria.
We were made to sit there in batches. A manager along with an HR walked towards our batch and started explaining the requirements and that they are looking to hire creative talents from this pool. I was happy to know and was listening to everything he said, as I was comfortable with the requirement.
Now was the individual interview time. After quite a long wait, my turn came. With great confidence I went to his table and with great gesture I said, "Good morning Sir."
Interviewer: Morning. Abishek, right?
Me: Yes Sir, that's correct.
Then he started verifying my mark sheets and other documents.
Interviewer: So Abishek, I see that you've had more than a couple of backlogs during your course. And we don't take candidates with more than two.
Me: Sir, but you said you are looking to recruit talents.
This hit him at the right spot and he began to think. But then the written policies are to be followed. The HR person was called and he informed me that even if they take me now, I would have issues during background verification.
I had to accept the loss that I had had. What started as a funny day yesterday ended up in a complete disaster today!
I didn't lose my confidence, as I believed in myself. I believed my TIME hadn't come then. I had to go little more in life before my TIME finally arrived and I got into this high performance firm.
"See, I told you, God had something bigger and better in store for you", was the reaction from most of my friends and relatives.
God? Being an atheist, God, for me, is just a 3 letter word in dictionary which meant any of the following;
–noun
1. The one Supreme Being, the creator and ruler of the universe.
2. The Supreme Being considered with reference to a particular attribute: the God of Islam.
3. (Lowercase) one of several deities, esp. a male deity, presiding over some portion of worldly affairs.
4. (Often lowercase) a Supreme Being according to some particular conception: the god of mercy.
5. Christian Science. The Supreme Being, understood as Life, Truth, Mind, Soul, Spirit, Principle.
6. (Lowercase) an image of a deity; an idol.
7. (Lowercase) any deified person or object.
But then I get to hear all the cliché that God is just a medium to have faith, gain confidence. Or if somebody comes to help you in need, he is God and blah blah blah.
I often wonder why do humans need or believe in God (a word) to 'keep faith', 'gain confidence'? Why don't we believe in ourselves? We need build our confidence ourselves, without depending on any external element like God. Imagine a day when you get up in the morning and realize that the word God has been erased from this world. Can we still survive? If we can, then we can even now!
Why should we think of somebody who helps you in need, is God? Why can't he be so human to have helped you?
Its high time we had moved out of the Godly world and made it as Humanly as possible.
