18 December, 0600 hrs
Current Emotion: *DhakDhak DhakDhak*
This phase of life – Can you do it ?
I call my mum, tell her that main aage se geela and peeche se peela ho raha hoon and wait for her to console me. She just says two words “Have Faith”.
After the PPT (ppt here is the pre-placement talk) I find my slot for the aptitude test at 6 pm.
Current Emotion: *Aaaargh, there goes my Christmas celeb at YMCA :/*
This phase of life – you have to give up small small things.
Between 10 and 6 that day, it seemed to be the longest wait ever. Anxious yet patient. Waiting. Waiting. The test started at 630 and at 8 pm the screen read – “Thank you for giving the aptitude test. You have failed to qualify”
Current Emotion *Eh? What? What? WHAT?*
I didn’t budge, was still in my spot, a placement cell volunteer dragged me out. I just couldn’t believe what happened moments ago. When I turned towards home, a friend called out and asked me to wait for the official results. I just wanted to go back home and sleep. Think of it as a bad dream, but then again, I had no control over me and he dragged me some place else. This phase of life – scared.
2030 hrs
This HR dude comes up and starts calling names out of whose who qualified, and (a sigh of relief) my name was also there. There were some technical issues he said. I went back home and started preparing for the technical interview the next day.
19 December, 0930 hrs
Current Emotion *bubble sort and concurrency control and pointers and waterfall model*
And then, “Karthik Madhavan”.
Current Emotion: *DhakDhak DhakDhak x 400 bps*
I walk in and for the next 40 minutes, this guy is just plundering me with questions and at first it was dhak dhak time again but I somehow forgot about it. Out of a possible “I don’t know how many” questions I couldn’t answer two of them – What does a zener diode do? ( I know the answer, it just didn’t click that time) and Who is the CEO of TCS. (Blunder # 1)
1400 hrs
Current Emotion: 2 down, 2 to go.
Technical cleared and now waiting for the HR and the ‘managerial round’ . Suddenly from nowhere this HR dude walks up to me and ‘This is a triple knot tie, why have you tied a double knot?’ (Blunder # 2) Saying this, he removed my tie and tied the ‘triple knot’ and almost choked me to laughter. My fellow interviewees around were just looking, flabbergasted, bewildered and one had a ‘shit-me-not’ expression. I had a feeling ‘I am done’. Within half an hour, my name was called and I walked inside to face three very odd looking people. This fat dude was one of them.
Current Emotion *Dead*
“Your technical was supposedly too good and that’s why you are here, but your marks say otherwise….” There was a pregnant pause, and I wasn’t sure if I had to break it. So I smiled like a jackass (Blunder #3)
After questions like describe yourself, strengths and weakness, why TCS etc (Oh, here I’d like to thank my dearest Rashi who acted like one tough momma and helped with such questions) the next question was -“Tell me about Make a Difference”
Current Emotion * Atta boy! *
After asking me all that they could and I answered everything confidently and perfectly, this fat dude goes – “Since you are so MAD, for the managerial round use technology to ameliorate the NGO” And this conscience inside me had the widest smile ever.
”You have 10 minutes!”
1420 hrs
”Sir, we’ll develop a web application. This webapp will be a complete volunteer management system along with a intra-social-networking amongst the volunteers. It can have features like shoutouts, events, chats etc and the same time the admin backend as well for announcements, procedures and protocols…..!”
”That was detailed. Does this app exist ?” (Blunder #4).
Current Emotion *Sach bolo!* and for the first time in a few days one very old friend spoke up.
Negative Creep *Sach bolega toh naukri nahi milega, soch le!*
”The idea has been implemented and this application is under development sir.”
This guy smiled and said “That will be all!”
Current Emotion *Did you just do a blunder # 5?*
Negative Creep *You just did the blunderest blunder. Doomass !*
2035 hrs
The names are being announced who made the final cut. And I’m waiting. Still waiting…and then -
“Karthik MAD Heaven”
or that’s what it did sound like. Relief. Peace. Happyness. Awesomeness !
I went up on the dais to collect my offer letter and the same guy shaking my hand says-
“That was really a MAD interview” 
On a personal note, thank you ‘someones’ 
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