I filled up the forms and solved the test carefully, because I could not afford to loose this opportunity. The recent ‘rejection’ was already haunting me.
Forms were submitted to the HR and she congratulated all the candidates; who had walked that milestone to climb up the pioneer step of their careers. It was a great evening; a ray of hope had come alive, after losing my father. I started dreaming of a better future filled with happiness for my family and for myself.
“Thank you for the call Monica. I will refer other candidates to you. May God bless you!”
“Look brother! My day was awesome. I was initially rejected by a Rs.7000 paying company and later I was called for another interview for D*ksh and I got hired.” They even handed over a 100 gram heavy APPOINTMENT LETTER. I was simply trying to make my brother happy, as I was already excited.
“Brother, I am glad to see you happy, but remember one thing, this letter is not going to give you money, you have to learn, apply and give output to get a good pay.” He went through the salary annexure page first, and smiled silently, and gave it back to me and said.
I had no problem with my brother’s attitude; he was more experienced than me, also I respected his thoughts and whatever he had said was true. But somehow our thoughts never met and clashed throughout our lives.
5 Days Later;
“Hello, Ram!” Someone called me from an unknown number; though it looked familiar.
“Yes, Ram here. Who’s this?” I asked.
“Sir, my name is Salman, I am calling you from Monica Placements with an update for you from D*ksh.
What is it? Tell me.
Sir, they have stopped hiring undergraduates, and you have not yet joined the organisation.” He was interrupted, so he had to stop himself there.
“May I speak with Monica please?” I said. Nothing was making sense to me. The hire-fire policies of those so called big companies…
“Yes, hello sir.” I remembered her voice.
“Hi Monica, what is this rumour all about? Tell me did they hire me or not?”
“Yes, they did, but now they have stopped hiring undergraduates. But I will get it checked and will get back to you.” She repeated what Salman had to say earlier, adding on the assurance that she would check with the HR.
I could not stop myself from calling the recruiter.
“Hi Ritika, my name is Ram, I got an offer from you to work with D*ksh on July 10th and now I am getting a call from the consultancy, that I am not eligible to work with D*ksh. What is it all about?”
“Yes, it is right that we have stopped hiring undergraduates, since you have already been offered a job with us and have also received the Appointment Letter, you will join us. Please be on time and let me know once you reach the venue. I will help you complete the joining formalities and come with all the original documents.” She said.
“Thank you very much. See you.” I said and took a deep breath.
***
CHAPTER FOUR
The Unique Learning
August 5th 2010, Nit Unique, Gurgaon, India
“Good morning sir, I am from D*ksh, you are scheduled for pickup today, and you are the cab leader. Call me once you get the cab.” An unknown caller said.
“Hi brother, what does a cab leader mean? And what is your name?” I asked. I wanted to become a political leader when I was a kid, and then fate had given me an opportunity to become a cab leader that morning.
“My name is Omkar Nautiyal. You will be picked up first. So you are the cab leader.” I was new and had no idea what he was talking about. We were supposed to be there for three weeks; as per the training plan. So, I was ready to get picked up. After about half an hour a local guy called and asked if, I am ready to board the cab.
I asked him to come at my address, as he insisted of picking me up from home. After struggling for 10 -15 minutes, he asked me to come to Patel Nagar, Gurgaon which was close to my residence in part 2, Sector-15.
“Sir, I am at the second pick up point. Please come near Pipal wali Gali, street No.7, Patel Nagar at the earliest. I am not allowed to wait for more than 5 minutes at one pickup point.” He was asking me to hurry up.
“Hi Om, Ram here. Please pick me up from SBI branch on Jharsa Road. I am standing on the main road opposite SBI branch. I have never been to Street No.7.” I requested Omkar.
“Alright; see you in 3 minutes.” Omkar said and disconnected the call.
The cab headed towards the training centre and the driver asked all of us to sign the duty-slip. We got down once we reached Sector-29 HUDA Market.
“Could you please let me know where the training is being conducted?” Omkar asked the security guard after reaching the 2nd Floor.
The Training Room,
After we got to know that the trainees had been divided into four parts in four rooms, I checked for my Room no. with my temporary employee ID and settled down.
A guy from the training centre came and gave all of us a pen and a notepad.
A lady came inside and sat quiet playing with her laptop for about 15 minutes.
“Good morning guys; my name is Supiya Arora. I am going to train you for the next 15 days. So, you can stand one by one and introduce yourselves. After that we will talk about our do’s and don’ts during these 15 days of training at NIT UNIQUE.” She kept talking and we kept listening to her.
Only 3 people could sit in one row, and I was sitting between Poppy and Razique. While talking to them I found that they were easy going people. On the left rows there were guys who were showing off, as if they are superior to each other.
I found Poppy shy, which was obviously, in general, a great quality of woman, but people in the training room had started making fun of those who speak less and look innocent. Fortunately, I was also the one who looks innocent. Some of them seemed to be followers of ‘judging the book by its cover’ which is mostly seen in Asian subcontinents, and tried to talk nonsense and measure our patience level.
I had very bad day, because I was not born with the tolerance of any such humiliations and now I was the one who was facing it. I had read the biography of warriors like the French political leader Napoleon Bonaparte; Bhimsen Thapa, the Nepalese brave leader who chose death rather than compromising with his self-respect; Bhagat Singh, the revolutionary hero of Indian independence movement. Being influenced by them, that humiliation was not easy to digest for me.
“Poppy, don’t you feel that these guys need to learn a lesson? They talk much and they talk bad. Should we complaint to the HR?” I asked her, while we were on a coffee break.
“No. Nobody will listen to us, and even if they listen, they will not believe us. Didn’t you see the trainer was also agreeing with most of the statements those guys were using.” She explained the reasons for keeping quiet.
“But keeping quiet is not the solution. They will tease you, me or some other guy or girl. Some of them had been to the USA or had worked in an international call centre before; but it doesn’t mean that they are everything for us and we should un-necessarily tolerate them.” I said.
“If you want to complaint, do it. But don’t involve me in this. I had been giving interviews for 15 days, and apart from couple of 6-7 thousands salary payers, I didn’t get any option. As of now, this job is something which I need and can’t leave; at least I will complete the training which will help me in the near future.” She was sure of tolerating and facing the situation.
“Alright, as you wish.” I said and we went back to the training room. We were in at the last minute, so Supiya, the trainer had asked us to keep standing for 2 minutes as we were not in time, her watch was fast and she was furious.
The shift ended and I went home. I chose to go by own, as I didn’t want any of the cab mates to see my house, I was not sure how worse the situations and circumstances would get or I was to see in the near future
. It was peak time and the traffic at the Signature Towers crossing was heavy. I saw a local guy fighting with the traffic police with their hands talking. I was confused, thinking about my dream to make a peaceful society, helpful, caring and an example for the rest of the world. I found my dream going through tough times, as the day was full of tensions both in the office and on the way to home.
“Hello Guys, any news about Poppy?” The trainer asked all of us, as she hadn’t arrived yet.
“No, Ma’am.” One of her favourite teammates answers quickly. He deserved a chocolate for that quick response.
“The customer you are trying to call is either switched off or out of coverage area. Please try after some time.” She tried Poppy’s phone putting her handset on speaker mode and asked for help to plug her laptop in.
At the end of the second day, we were asked to give a free speech. Obviously, I along with my colleagues had made a lot of mistakes, I admitted it and I was open to feedback. Supiya had made notes of the errors that were made on the white board, in front of everyone. I was open for the ‘OPEN’ feedback, with Supiya along with her favourite kids in the classroom making fun of us by repeating the words which were “mispronounced” by couple of innocent colleagues and me. They didn’t forgive Razique, who was originally from Bihar, they didn’t forgive Poppy who had never seen an English medium school, they had no mercy on me who was in search of some income to arrange a fee for distance learning college, bread and butter for family and First Language Influence was a big concern for most of us.
“Ram, are you from the Caves?” I felt I was slapped hard by Supiya, who was unhappy with the pronunciation errors. Every eye was on me, some of them increasing the beauty of the smiling faces, some were waiting how I would react. It seemed that we were still slaves of English and she was asking me whether I was from a Cave. It was a question mark for every single job-seeker, who comes from a rural area and struggles with English.
In the result of the ‘insult’, tears were about to slide down my face; I was in the training room, cursing myself of being a part of that hi-fi English world.
“Why is she so strict on us? It’s a domestic process and we don’t really use British or American accent, while talking to Indian customers for Airtel.” Razique said.
The favourite ones had got the license to talk about anything, one of them was saying that I was innocent, tolerant; another guy interrupted and said that I must still be a mama’s boy. It was such a nightmare for me to survive, as they kept on saying shi**y things, I kept trying to be stronger.
I found myself weaker day by day, after getting extremely exhausted. I thought I should quit and go back to my village, but within a second, I was cursing myself for the loser’s thought which had recently crossed my mind. How can I lose this fight? Why should I leave? Why not them? Why should not my organisation kick this institute’s a** for providing such degraded English language trainer? I was asking myself, but it was worthless complaining about that issue and get myself targeted, so I chose to sacrifice to some extent, but that ‘some’ thing was going beyond ‘some’.
I had a lot of respect for the young trainer. I had been taught by my parents that teachers hold respect in our society. I had always been guided to respect others especially senior citizens, women, teachers and parents.
But she had lost the respect by using such a language. I would have never forgiven her for that “Cave” question. And it is still there in the corner of my heart. I had promised that once I am back to my village, I will start an NGO, to teach people language, culture and open a charity hospital for people who can’t pay for their treatment.
The ‘Judgement’ Day
I reached on time at NIT UNIQUE centre. A few trainees from other batches and from my batch were roaming on the balcony outside; a few of them were out for smoking with the trainer. I was in the news for a special reason there; I was wearing formal wear with a tie, wherein other people had casuals and sports shoes, some of them in fact didn’t bother about the results of the assessment. But it mattered a lot for me. All the questions were in the parking lot to answer, the reply for all that humiliation and harassment was supposed to be given, so the respected trainer was about to confirm; whether I was from a cave or from a decent civilised family.
Mr. Manish Abuja was the one to take the final assessments. Some of the trainees started taking his talking style in a negative sense.
“He looks gay; hope he clears every guy, can’t guarantee for girls.” One of Supiya Arora’s favourites had said so in front of the trainer herself.
“Guys, this is too much. Control your feelings. I hope you guys are going to crack it. Exceptions are always there.” Trainer Supiya looked at me to let her favourites know the exception.
A loud laugh was cutting my heart in pieces. But, my real fight was not merely with trainers like Supiya Arora, and trainees like her favourite ones. So, I awaited and didn’t pay attention to them, because I was preparing for the worst. Also, I had belief in myself, so I showed some decency and kept quiet. It must be bothering them as they were changed.
“How could someone be so cheap like they were? The respected person holding the position of a Senior Training Manager in a multinational company was getting spoiled by some wrong hires. Yes, he is very soft spoken, very kind, very polite and courteous. Does that mean he is gay? What has happened to the thought process of today’s youth?” I was asking myself as I had nobody to share my thoughts.
“Hey Ram, I am scared thinking about the results of the final assessment.” Razique said.
“I have no reason to be scared. I have nothing to lose. So, I am not scared of anything. I will talk to him and tell him why I should be in. By the way he seems better than Supiya.” I said.
“Ma’am, please tell us who is going first?” Karun asked.
“You Karun! You are going to be the first one. Then I will send the others.
After some time, she wrote names of her ‘children’ and I was the last one.
“Why are you sending him at last?” Karun asked.
“I have no expectations that he will crack this interview. We have been training batches for months for D*ksh and I know what type of ‘people’ they want.
It was understood by everyone that the training was getting conducted, as there was a lot of scope for all of us to learn and polish our language and soft skills. Also, they had the policy to send people for training prior to sending them for process training and on floor productions. But she had made perceptions and counted on her fingers that how many people will clear the assessment.
“I will not tell you guys to work hard; I am wishing you all the best. I wish I could see everyone pass this training and go home with a happy face. But, I doubt it will happen.” She doubted on her batch, her training skills and people who had passed four rounds of interviews before being a part of that team.
Assessment Interaction:
“May I come in sir?” I asked the interviewer after opening the door.
“Yes, please. Settle down.” A smiling face was welcoming me into the world of D*ksh.
“Thank you Sir.” It was natural for me to give respect to people; it was not at all sycophancy.
“Oh Come on! Call me Manish.” He said with a smile. His smile said too much to my colleagues, who had met him earlier. They had cheap, very cheap observations and guesses, because they perceived him as gay, but my eyes saw him as a caring, loving and a very good human being, sitting and talking to me about how well I had spent these 15 days in NIT Unique centre, though he was very professional. He asked me questions related to career, education, hobbies and interests etc.
“You are dressed up nicely Ram.” He complimented.
“Thank you sir, thank you very much.” I thanked him, but I could not hide my emotions. Because from the past 15 days and 120 hours, I had been humiliating myself for being there, every time I heard comm
ents from the teammates and trainer. I ended up cursing myself; because I know that I deserved better in life, had I been serious about my studies in my school days, utilised my time by doing good things rather than wasting time with working for a few bucks.
“What happened? Any problem?” Manish asked.
“No, sir. I am sorry.” I came back from the flash back. The ‘cave’ question was still going through my mind like a hornet roaming around the bees’ nest.
“No Ram, you can tell me with expectations of justice. I am the AVP- TRAINING; I know how others talk about innocent people. It’s my life and I know how polite, courteous, caring and a good human being I am. I would like to advise you to learn this quality. Having said that, I am not asking you to keep quiet, and tolerate anyone or anything, but don’t curse yourself. I don’t talk to candidates this way, but you deserve some personal care and I have experience of a lot of years. I know what you are wondering. By the way, how could you manage to have been well-dressed today? You have been complimented for this earlier by very well-mannered people around, I know. I heard something, but God will definitely do justice, don’t you worry about that.” He assured justice and helped me believe that I was in good hands for the training period.
He took a mock call and asked for how long I wanted to be with D*ksh.
“Okay, go and chill. Feel happy, enjoy your life, you are a wonderful and an amazing person” He said.
“I would like to forget this ‘cave’ question, but I will always remember this interview with Mr. Manish Abuja.” I was returning to the classroom. There was nobody left for the interview.
A few minutes later, Supiya went to Manish’s cabin, and came back with the list of people and said. “The magic of your name worked Ram! Which magical arrow you used on the client? You have passed the assessment. The client was extremely happy and appreciative as well.”
I had no option to share trainer’s feedback, so I completed the great learning time and returned to D*ksh with a question” Are you from the caves?”
Asked to Leave Page 5