My First Job Interview: Part 5 of 5

As soon as my name was called out, I went dizzy with joy. The moment had come and I was there making sure that it was for real. My moments, my thirty seconds of fame.
I would definitely have that burning desire deep down inside to relive those moments once again.
Hordes of people, my friends and well-wishers, gathered around me, congratulated me and hugged me all over. The joy was eternal and happiness everlasting.
Vishal Khare and Dheeraj Chaudhary were the other guys who were selected. All three of us were called into the room to fill-up the form. Prof. V.K.Singh, The Bald and The Lady were chatting in the room. The Bald congratulated us one by one and said " We welcome you at POLARIS to be our associates." The Lady also congratulated us. We filled-up the form and handed it over to the Lady. Professor said " Go and Enjoy yourselves"
It was going to be all praises for me and it was. The story that was cooked all through the day was simply unbelieveable. While walking down from the faculty gates to the hostel room, I had to pinch myself again and again to make sure that everything happening was for real.

The Celebrations:
Pink Panther, the choicest of bar in Lucknow was host to a group of 20 people who enjoyed till the wee hours of the night. The expense - Rs. 5,000 only to be paid by Utsav Verma who realized it only the next day afternnon. Although Ankur managed the cheque at that point, the following days were tough, trying to arrange for money; to be returned to Ankur. Many people pitched in and I have still not paid the sum to a few of them.

More News:
The news of All India Rank of 164 in JMET and interview calls from IITs and IISc. for the management program made my b'day on 19th, a truly memorable one. A software job and 4 MBA interview calls - life looked like a cruise. From an unemployed, unwanted Chemical engineer, I became a 'gyaan' giver. Life surely has a way to surprise when you are least expecting.

A month later...
Polaris sent us the appointment letter within a month's time. Of the 200 people recruited through-out India, the joining was supposed to happen in batches. Mine was the last batch; to be joining in October.

Next few months:
During the next few months, I appeared for management interviews and failed miserably. For such a decent rank, it was believed that something would have been seriously wrong to have missed out on 4 interviews. I did not convert any of of the interviews to admission call. Perhaps, I was ill-prepared; bent on joining Polaris rather than be engaged for two further years of studies.

September 17, 2001:
I was informed (indirectly) via a formal letter from Polaris that Mr. Osama Bin Laden has destroyed the twin World Trade Center towers. Polaris deferred the joining by six months. However, they promised to get back to us in six months time. It was a shocker of an experience. Failed interviews, no jobs and lots of uncertainty - I would again say - Life surely has a way to surprise when you are least expecting. I hesitantly started preparing for MBA exams- two months away.

March 2002:
My fascination to the US was much lesser than my collegues but it still was; otherwise how could one fathom that I just had one e-mail ID at usa.net which winded-up its services in the past few months. Rather unluckily, Polaris also had this sole e-mail ID of mine where they informed of conducting a test of programming skills before taking-in their selected candidates. I never received the mail, neither did Polaris inform through a formal post. Vishal and Dheeraj gave the test and joined Polaris. My World Dream Towers stood shatterred. I was again jobless, more so hopeless, a forced MBA aspirant and open to the 'gyaan' of the gurus around me.
POLARIS was never my first job. I would wait for another couple of years before getting a job, that too a hard fought one. But more on it later...