Interview - Velai - Vetti

Yesterday, me and my roomie were searching for english subtitles for a telugu movie, and ended up comparing between Bing and Google (I am a relegious googler! :P), and started searching for our names. It was then I came across this (sl. no. 28 ;-)).

Memories went back to that afternoon(11 July 04) in Sathyabama campus, when the interview results were to be announced in another hour or so; had just finished a "Satyabama lunch" :). Some 10 of us from Mech were sitting together under the shamiana, ready for a good after-meal nap; butts parked in a chair and legs in two others, ties on the shoulder like a thundu, those who napped - napped, others kalaichufying each other and the interviewers. We were like some exhibits being watched by nervous bunch of Comp Sci and MCA fellows and also few from other depts; It was so obvious that we were the ones least bothered about the results.

To elaborate further, we need to rewind full 48 hours further back. Anna Univ released results, the day before our prelims with Infy was scheduled for at Sathyabama. A few dumeels, many miraculous escapes and ofcourse many cleared arrear cases filled the drama. Anna Univ had pushed the button on one of my good friends AV, that too in HPC! :P. He called me up and spoke in abyss of morale on what would happen the next day, bcos he will have a standing arrear, despite being confident that he would clear in reval (so typical Anna univ case!). The next day pre-placement talk had a super goof-up, when the HR chose to ignore the 6th sem results all-together. Now those who got flunk-results last night are eligible and those who cleared standing arrears do not qualify now! - So very sensible. Well... the best part was AV took my advice and came in formals (LOL) and clean shaved, to talk to the PO to save his skin.

People were so immersed in their Shankuntala Devis and George Summers; one fellow from my class, KKanna had mugged entire George Summers up!; Our dear old Machan Mallu was shaddowing a stud from EEE all along and managed to get a seat next to him in the exam hall (I still don't know why :|). The test was over in no time, and when we all came out, Machan Mallu tried panicking me that I could be rejected for being in top 10 percentile :P as if I was bothered (I scored a 59/60 btw - I managed to see my paper while at the interview the nxt day). The shortlist for the interview was announced late in the afternoon, and to everybody's "surprise" 90% of my college girls dumeeled (including my 'then' best friend). "Gender BIAS"!!. Some 14 were in from my class; too much of stomach burnings around bcos we joint-topped with CS-A with the numbers.

The interview day begun with Mr.Bull tying ties for all of us (The only other time I wore one was to try out a windsor knot for which I got a demo in an email forward ;o) ); one akka from MCA losing her ID card in the waiting room, machan mallu sweating and trying to transfer his nervousness to all of us, VJ trying to act cool, me & dog not sure on how to react, Policeman being all-ears, AV at his comical best, and I have no rememberance on what our Nellai Hero was doing. I was called for the interview, had a good talk with the 50 something HR person, about Finite Elements, variational calculus and that I am planning to study further and this job is just a back up. After it was all over, we were sharing our experiences; AV had the best of all. He got a lady trying to stress him up questioning his Mech background for an IT job and he pinning her down in a single response, and many more mundane exchanges with others.

Now back live; Our gang napping and relaxing under the shade. The stage got occupied and people were coming back to get seated. Our PO started with CS and went through with 20 names with expected celebrations and Hi5's all around, and then "Now Mechanical Engineering.... Mr. Santhosh Chandrasekaran", all of us turned to him and he slapped on his forehead :D