Chapter 5 – Catches wins matches!!
I was caught on the boundary. All my preparations for taking a tough interview had gone to waste. Abhishek was blackmailing me to take him for the sake of my relationship with his sister.
Relationship! What relationship? Yes, I met her once and I liked her. Yes, her mails do provide me some happiness. But this was not enough to be blackmailed by her brother. Ok, I am a poor SE who can adjust to every recession conditions but bowing down for a girl was not a manly thing to do. I had to stand up for myself. And so I asked him the questions I had specially prepared for him.
Abhishek was startled by my questions. But his replies were not so amusing to me. As expected, the guy had faithfully proved all my questions to be wrong for his answers.
At the end of our discussion, Abhishek asked “So what can I expect from the interview?”
“I am sorry Abhishek!! You should have prepared a bit more.” I replied
Shocked at my response, the guy made a last ditch effort
“O, you know, my sister’s marriage rests on me getting a job.”
“I understand it Abhishek. But it can’t be this job.”
Just at that moment the door opened and Priya entered the room.
“Sorry guys, I had to pick up an ‘important’ call. You can proceed with the questions Rohit?”
“My questions are over Priya. You can ask him some more if you like?”
O god! What had I done? This was my mistake. I should have stopped Priya from asking more questions. Have you ever imagined two ‘not so technical’ earthlings having technical discussions? Here Priya was asking him something wrong and he was confidently replying to it wrongly.
As the show went on, I waited patiently for their discussion to get over. I don’t remember when my eyes closed and I fell asleep.
Suddenly, I got a push on my left shoulder.
‘Is he ok? I didn’t quite understand his replies?‘ Priya whispered to me
That was because he didn’t understand your questions dear.(I thought)
‘Err, I didn’t either… The guy is confusing. So let’s not confuse our team by taking him in’ I whispered back
‘Hmm… you are right’ (whispering)
Priya thought for a while and then looking at Abhishek, she finally said
“Thank you for your time! You can now leave for the day now”
And so the damage was done. Abhishek was rejected by me and my love story was over before a start. Now, I would never get Trisha in my life. My little relationship had gone for a toss. And the beauty that I had started finding in every woman was fading, as I yet again, found them to be fat, thin, tall and small. Oh God! What a joy was it to be single again.
That night, I couldn’t sleep properly. Yes, I was happy to save myself from the girl’s family but I must admit that Trisha had been nice to me.
The next day, I tried talking to a new girl who had recently joined my bus. But, in spite of me trying hard, the girl didn’t show much interest. At least the Trisha was not so uninterested.
The following day, my whole time went on managing a crashing bug. But at night she came back again. By the end of the fourth night, I knew that I had madly fallen in love with her.
My joy disappeared and I realized my mistake. I shouldn’t have rejected her brother. Being a software engineer in recessionary times, I shouldn’t have been so unsympathetic to him. So what if her brother answered nothing? There are so many who don’t and yet they do something to show that they did something. Look at me, I did civil engineering and joined a software firm and now I purify sins (manage bugs) made by others.
But what could I do now? I had lost the opportunity to make her my life partner. My heart was deeply crushed. I started remaining sad and down throughout the days. Even a Manager’s praise or an easy fixing bug couldn’t cheer me up that week. On the fourth day, my hopes revived when I found my friend and advisor Atul in office.
Atul was my best friend. He was a tall and intelligent fellow who had solutions for every problems of life. Atul had been my good friend since our fresher days. We used to pass time together until he joined another team. Now, Atul had to work from a client’s location which was twenty miles away from our office. He used to come here only for his HR or Finance related issues.
Just like every time, we had lunch together that day.
As a real friend Atul could sense my feelings
“What’s up dude? You seem to be down.”
“Yes Atul! How can I hide things from you? Last week I had gone to meet a girl for my marriage. She was sweet. I had started liking her. But now I feel that I can never get her in my life”
“Why man? What is the problem?”
“I can’t get her because I rejected her brother…” And I told him my entire tragedy in one go.
Atul thought for a moment. And then something struck on his head and he replied
“Hmm! I have an idea! You can give Abhishek’s resume to me and I will forward to one of my friends in Pre-Sales.”
“Pre-sales! Why pre-sales? Do they recruit people from other background? Moreover, would Abhishek agree to go for a pre-sales job?”
“Don’t worry dude! I have a very good friend out there. Besides, its software pre-sales after all! An experienced guy from software field will at least give them some insight of the product. As far as Abhishek’s preference is concerned, I feel a jobless guy will be ready to grab anything.”
I didn’t realize it that time but Atul was right. Software pre-sales was probably the best option for saving my love story. The more I thought about it, I found Abhishek to be a fit for the job. Was I being optimistic? Was I being blinded by love? No, let me explain.
Software pre-sales and software developers have a close relationship. Last year our team won the Best Product (best bug hidden software) award. However, as time passed the true picture came to light and we got no increments and no promotions due to lack of product sales. It seemed that either the higher management was too visionary to create a client confusing product or the pre-sales guys tried too hard which scared the clients away. After all selling something you don’t know to someone who doesn’t understand it is a tough job. And so as a punishment, the software engineers had to adjust their salaries to the sales figures.
In short, product pre-sales is a highly specialized field of scaring client about the consequences of not having the product. And since my brother-in-law was great in creating confusion, I felt that his services can better utilized to influence (confuse) the client. Moreover, who knows, the guy could turn out to be a pre-sales hero who could bring back our lost increments.
The resume was forwarded to Atul’s friend and a phone call went to Abhishek that night. My name was explicitly mentioned as the referrer to assure him of my good intentions.
The next morning, as expected, there was an email from the lady herself.
“Hi Rohit,
How are you?
It has been a long time, since you spoke to me. Have you forgotten me? I am doing well in my school. The school’s annual day is approaching and we are preparing the children to perform.
Thanks for forwarding my brother’s resume. Last night he got a call for an interview for a Pre-Sales job. He hasn’t done any such work before but I presume that you find him suitable for this job. Anyways thanks for this opportunity.
Cheers!
Trisha ”
Thank God! So this confirmed the carrying forward of our relationship. Now, I just hoped that Abhishek would be able to qualify the Pre-Sales interview.