A Tale of Two Decades
1999 IIT, Kharagpur
'Sho, printf ish to print and shcanf ish* to read,' a petite, dedicated, universally adored Prof. S.S. Alam rambled on. He was struggling to bring a cohort, alienated from computing, on par with others. Communicating with anybody on any land in any language seemed easier for the students than learning that syntax and pleading the computer to execute a logic. They hardly "saw" anything in "Let us C" - a popular guide book for beginners. Some even sidled to surreptitiously escape answering (or rather escape suffering the inability of answering) Prof Alam's occasional whim, a whim of picking somebody randomly to test the gap between what he lectured and what the students ingested.
It was a while before these otherwise arduous IITians could appreciate his selfless endeavour and diligence that was indispensable for them to participate in the cut-throat competition for coveted positions proferred by reputed IT firms during the much-sought-after campus recruitment. Come the final term, national and multi-national companies queued up to recruit freshers, domain of study did not matter - IP was all they were after. It was an ambience that no student could ignore - a fear of getting branded "you're the only one who couldn't bag a job" was pressing everyone to transcend their comfortable boundaries and go for it, even if that meant rejecting the hard-earned offer and moving back to one's own field. Mr Alam's exacting lessons made every sense all on a sudden!
Two young souls - a boy and a girl who've shared a journey throughout their college days - were caught up in that tumult. They prepared together, filled up forms together, and sat the infamously tough test together in a desperate attempt to snag a place in one of the reputed firms. Cracking the test was their only hope to get settled with each other or part ways to slake the asks of their families.
Halfway through that game-changing test, the girl succumbed to the convolutions of brainteasers; the boy nudged her to help, but she turned away - scared the invigilators would disqualify both but praying and hoping the boy succeeded.
And he did - one among a handful of achievers. The girl's endeavours cinched her attempt to crack another aptitude test for a different corporate job. Thus started their new phase of life - fraught with its own thrills and throes. Had she responded to his nudge during the test, their career paths wouldn't have forked and their lives perhaps would've been different. And she would've probably taken that hand if she knew she'd negotiate a string of peaks and troughs to join the same firm after 21 years 6 months and 7 days.
Yes, euphoric to inform I, the girl in the story, finally found a place alongside that boy-turned-spouse-turned-dad, in globally-reputed Infosys, ANZ. Thanks to all who contributed, and supported me to settle in my new workplace.
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Many thanks!!!