Six months. Two quarters. Half a year…the probation period, by any other name, would dwell as deep. A million learning, of both kinds, the soft as well as the not so soft ones.
Somehow each of my attempt to be able to write about them have been futile. Things are definitely not as they seemed from outside.
Some how, in these last six months; I couldn’t help notice some interesting similarities that exist between some of the most visibly dissimilar things...
- Mutual Funds have fixed entry loads; while exit loads are contingent differed, the longer you stay the lesser it gets... Jobs have entry loads too, lot of adjustments, lot of friction. Most would not mind these entry loads, as the underling investment avenue seem very lucrative. Here too the exit loads are contingent differed. If you are kicked out before 6 months it’s the highest, 6 months to 1 yr and its appreciable loading. 1 yr and beyond and expect a farewell gift.
- Careers are long term investments, but if you invest into avenues that do not match your risk profile, you could be in for a rude shock. Over time you would realize that the inflation has eaten into your earnings, all the way up to your principal.
- Like investments, people can play safe with their careers too. Some dare to take a few chances early-on invest into riskier avenues, as they are aware that they have a long way to go, while others can sit pretty with their debt based investments, with no real value add, even sometimes at a cost of capital (intellectual) erosion.
Also, its funny to notice how things can be drastically different when one does not realize what the interviewer said and what he actually meant...and you didn’t bother to clarify.
- It is a challenging job – Actually means: - You will have to take up sales challenges everyday. You will be asked to demonstrate your entire magical prowess everyday, justify your cost, by earning five times as much.
- Are you good at numbers? This job involves a lot of number crunching – Actually means: - The targets will be so steep; the pressure for numbers will be such that, there will be lot of numbers' crunching you...
- We think global, act local – This one is the most practical – Refers to your conveyance; this means that you can think of traveling by a taxi or a rick, but the fare reimbursed will be that of a local!
- This job will take you places – Implies that your clients could be in the western, central or even the harbor line; you will have to 'go places' !!
- The job will provide international exposure – means – some of the irate clients will be based abroad, and you will have no clue about their reduced credit limit or their undelivered statements.
Lastly,
- You can take your own decisions – this one is true – just yesterday I went to the loo, absolutely no questions asked!!!
Welcome to the real world!
Disclaimer:
The above piece is intended purely for humor. Facts might be(are) misrepresented. Please take this with a pinch of salt! All references to instances are unreal! I love my job, respect the chair!
I was traveling to Peddar road for my medical tests so I decided to take a train from Andheri, I had to reach at 8:30.
There was a lot going through my mind; what was to follow, was the 2nd day at work. The 2nd day, and the rest of my professional life was to follow. There were LOTS of things that were not the way I had expected them to be.
Being the Libran that I am, I was continuously weighing the significance of this decision that I taken to kickoff my career. Was feeling completely bogged down, a very negative feeling, a feeling of having taken a wrong decision, of having committed myself to something that might not have been the best thing for me. Suddenly the grass was greener on the other side, everything else in the world seemed better than what I had. At least by the look and feel of the 1st day at work, I was just not happy.
Fast train was an option; remember I was to get down at Grant road for taking a cab to Pedder road. But there was just a Dadar-fast indicated on platform no 5. I glanced at the other indicators, sadly there was no train starting form Andheri. Just a one expected on platform no 3, which I clearly saw, in broad day light, as being a CHURCHGATE SLOW.
I had no other option, but to take it slow. I was hoping to be in a fast lane, pretty soon in my career, but none of the indicators seemed to be in my favor. For the moment when I stepped into the slow train, everything seemed like the way I never wanted things to be. Suddenly, I felt that I didn’t belong there, people there were not-my-type, it would take me forever to get where I wanted to go. Definitely a wrong decision, I was convinced. The train started. I was in deep thought, my mind racing from past to future and back.
The crowd jostled towards the right exit, the next station must be Parle I thought, for it was a slow train, I was convinced.
Again lost in thoughts, some time passed by, suddenly and unexpectedly, the Khar-Bandra- harbor line flyover came into view. It was strange. It was a bit too close to the slow-train tracks, and was also too soon to be bandra. As I was looking around I realized that the train pulled up on the 5th platform at bandra, it was indeed a fast train!! The loud speaker blared jalat local...
I thought I saw it clearly at the start...read the indicator correctly and was convinced that it was a slow train. But I was wrong! Had indeed ignored the signs at the beginning, I was so preoccupied with my thoughts that I had ignored the obvious signs.
I realized that something I was convinced to be slow; was actually not. Even though there were ominous signs at the beginning, the truth was that in the long run, the train had indeed pulled a fast one on me...
These same eight days, 16th to 23rd of March. Two years ago, i.e. 2006. The week that it was, has been etched in my memory like a child’s worst nightmare that just refuses to die down. Let go, move-on, forget it, get over it...nothing seems to work.
The week that this was, has to be the worst time of my life, and I pray that it stays that way. This is one of those times that you know are going to haunt you for the rest of your life, but this, that I pray doesn’t.
I was in Bangalore on the 16th, when it all started; a phone call at 5:30pm and my whole world came crashing down. The whole thing was so very unreal, it took me almost a month to actually come to terms with the fact that it had really happened.
Doesn’t it happen many a times that we are caught off-guard and the things that we would generally take for granted, suddenly shoot back at you, and the world what you thought you were so familiar with, suddenly isn’t the same anymore.
Under-performing on two GD/PI attempts and losing out on those MBA seats was not the biggest bit of my concerns, because what I had lost didn’t have any chance of a second attempt. I had to get it right first time, and every time.
Suddenly my life didn’t have an aim; I was in such a phase where I couldn’t look at the future because my present had just disconnected it from me. Sometimes we love someone so much that we lose ourselves completely. Love should be the biggest part of your life, but never the only part. I learnt it the difficult way.
The last day of this week, it had been the most special day of the year for me, bigger than any other day. When I remember all the years gone by, and the moments I had lived on all those days, I grin from ear to ear. But, this day, that week, was a certain death blow to my wailing heart. My tears on that street are still a witness to what I went through. From the one to no-one, I stood there and earned myself a look of sheer disgust, like a beggar with tattered clothes, passing her on the street. Just that I happened to carry flowers and I happened to be loved, a week ago.
What followed this week; was months and years of strengthening & rebuilding. Yet every time I thought I had built a strong fortress around my heart, all it took was a memoir of those days, and my defenses fall apart like a pack of cards; only to get me rebuilding it, but with a renewed determination yet a little moist in the eye.
This week that year; was drenched. And today as the calendar again reads this week, I am reminded of the time it could have been. ‘Drenched’ I’m not, but you can’t blame me if I happen to take a dip instead...
“For you, a thousand times over”, says Hassan as he hurries off to run the blue kite, the last one to fall at the annual kite flying competition. Amir had already won the competition, his was the last kite to rule the skies of Wazir Akbar Khan district, but the prize was not complete till he possessed the last kite to fall. And when he asked Hassan to run the kite for him, he said “Amir Agha...for you, a thousand times over”
Adjectives like splendid, amazing and marvelous all seem rather bland when I attempt to account the story that is “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini. It is a masterful saga of human emotions that touches each and every cord of ones heart!
Setup in the Afghanistan of early 70’s, it is a story narrated by Amir. He traces his life and the various facets of his relationships with his Baba and Hassan! The simplicity and the ease with which Hosseini has narrated the mesmerizing saga of human emotions through the eyes of the young Amir is simply spellbinding.
In the backdrop of political uncertainty and turmoil in Afghanistan, the writer has masterfully narrated the plight and sufferings of life under Taliban which was a Trojan in the eyes of the ageing Afghans. The shattered hopes and aspirations of the Afghans and the atrocities that Taliban was, compels you to stop and take notice.
Hosseini has made a liberal use of Urdu and Farsi in his descriptions of amazing tales, salutations, rituals and traditions from the afghan. Amir and Hassan who grow up together, fed from the same breasts, yet there is something that sets them wide apart from each other but still they share an amazing bond that slowly and gently unfolds in the course of the story!
The tale would trickle right into the heart of any one who picks up this masterpiece. If this story does not make your heart flinch and if tears don’t moisten your eyes, anything seldom will...
