A Costly Mistake….Part I

The Known Stranger:

It was half past twelve. The sky was dark and the chill air was whipping through each and every part of my body. It was a tense moment and my hand which was holding the bat was shivering. I could see the Winners Cup glowing with the aid of reflections from the flood lights around the ground.There was absolute silence for a minute. Even the commentator stood silent and I could see my team members waiting eagerly to uplift the Golden trophy.The opponents were busy setting up the field. Everyone came closer and only one person was standing out of the circle in deep fine leg. The path through which the team reached the finals of the tournament was not an easy one. So it was the final moment.There was only a single ball which separated me and my team from the glory. A do or die situation. One ball remaining, two runs to get.

Suddenly someone tapped me on my hands.Everything went dark. A voice spoke “Its time..Shankar”. The voice was not a familiar one to me and I couldn't recognise who spoke to me. I felt like both my eyelids were stitched together and it was too heavy to open.With great difficulty,after a few seconds I opened my eyes and realised it was just a dream. I saw a man who I guess was on his early fifty’s. He was short, half-bald and a bit skinny.But I couldn't see the face clearly. I quickly reached for my spectacles and got it over my nose. Now I could recognise the man who spoiled my sleep and dream. It was my friends father. He turned back to me and said “Good morning…get yourselves ready..Its half past four..”. Half past four??oh my god!! I had never got up so early in my life time..Not even during my exams..

I got up half-heartedly and my eyes were swollen. I hardly slept for two-three hours that night as I was chatting with my friend about Delhi,What is good about it and what is bad about it. It was 5:15 am when I got myself prepared for the Interview and I saw my friend still sleeping in his bed. Atlast his mobile alarm went up and his father started yelling him for getting up so late. He brushed his teeth and took a book in his hand which I recognised as “Men are from mars and Women are from Venus”. Without my approval he took my I-pod and said to me “Lets start buddy..Its already late….”.

From Delhi To Noida:

His house was located at Tilak Nagar. So we had to make a 2 to 3 hours travel to go to Noida. We took the Delhi metro at 6:15am.I thought the train might not be much crowded as it was early morning and I was pretty much looking forward to get a seat so that I could get some sleep. But It was not as I expected..It was much crowded as it would be in peak hours. And the 25 minutes journey was really painful to me. My friend was keep on asking me questions from electrical, but I was not ready to answer and kept silent.We reached Barahkambha Road around 22 minutes later. My friend enquired about the easiest and shortest way to get to Noida.

We caught a bus to Noida and once again I had to stand for another one hour journey. This journey made me sick and I felt like returning back to my friends home.I was not in a mood to attend the interview.I thought of giving up and returning to Delhi. The bus in which we travelled suddenly stopped. When asked about the problem the conductor told “TYRE PUNCTURED BHAYYA”. After lots of difficulties I reached the place of Interview at 8:45am. 15 minutes late from the scheduled time. However the written test started at 9:15 am only. I could see some familiar Tamil faces..I recognised them immediately as they travelled with me from Chennai to Delhi.

The atmosphere around the college:

The place of Interview was actually a college which was owned by the same management which owned the company, for which I was asked to attend the Interview. My friend made his way to waiting room along with my I-pod and his book.He warned me to get myself out at the end of first round. I felt pity for him because he had to wait for me the whole day in a room.

As I said before it was an engineering college along with Integrated management courses. The college was really a huge one with lots of space to play.The site of girls playing basketball and Badminton was very inviting and my bad mood that day cheered up.It was pleasant with lots of plants along the sides of the pathway,which lead to a large building with a black board placed before it.It consisted of the names and registration number of all candidates appearing for the exam. I found mine and noted down my registration number. I was given directions by one of the security to the place where where I have to write the exam.

While entering I felt like the steps were at the centre and the room extended on both sides of it.It was exactly as I thought except that the hall exceeded my expectations. It was a huge auditorium constructed in a semi-circular fashion. The beautiful thing about the construction is while you are in your first step of the stairs you can only view the roof of the auditorium and while reaching the last one you can see a semi-circular dais straight ahead of you. On both the sides you can see black coloured seating's. A writing pad was provided to each person.Electrical students were escorted to left side of the hall and Instrumentation students to right side of the hall.

I made my way to the left side of the hall. There were rest rooms and toilets to the both left and right ends of the hall. The floors were made of marbles which were sandal coloured and I could see my face winking back at me through the floors. The walls resembled or looked liked they were made of woods. And there were large hangings which reminded me the last scene of Hp and the sorcerers stone,where the Gryffindor,slytherin etc..etc.. hangings were seen. The lights also were also of the same colour which added beauty to the place and It gave me a impression of being in a theatre and not an exam hall.

So it was time and the test was about to begin. I could see many officials entering the auditorium with bulks of papers in their hands. They looked like high class professionals and atlast one of them made his way to the dais with a mike in his hands and began his speech.

TO BE CONTINUED……..

Image Courtesy: Google

FN:This post, I wanted to write two weeks before…. Sorry for the delay……And my apologies if it was too boring to read…