Facing an interview

Ever since I have been out on my own after college, I have found myself facing a lot of interviews, specifically for a job and even otherwise. I have failed a few, made a mess of some, got through some, and have had so much fun in some because the interviewer just made it all look so casual or maybe he was just wasn't doing a good job! Anyways, just the thought of an interview puts me on an alert. There is something about interviews that gives me the goosebumps and it makes me realize that it's time for a reality check. It ain't as if I am short of confidence, short of experience or as if I hadn't been in a crunch situation before, but this one is always different. The interviewer fires a question and you have a reply, but will it satisfy the guy, is it what he is expecting to hear, or is it something he already knows and is just interested in hearing my point of view. What if my point of view doesn't coincide with his views? Will my answer be to the point or be vague and irrelevant.

I have taken interviews myself, hired and fired people, judged them professionally, but somehow being interviewed just gets to me. It starts right with the way I look. Did I have a good clean shave, do I need a haircut, what do I wear, will it be a dark shirt or a light colored one. Should the shoe be brown or black. How will I be judged? Will the interviewer be a style freak, hard taskmaster, or a dimwit, or maybe a total nerd who is gonna kill me with his technicalities.

There is another type of interview, not the job category, but the life changing category, equally unnerving by virtue of its contents and nature, and the demands it puts on your psyche....the matrimonial interview. This one is much more ruthless, though it’s very subtle. You can't smart talk your way through this one, cos if you lie or make a tall claim, it will come back to haunt you all your life. This one's in the take it or leave it segment or the ‘you will lose anyway’ mode.

Finally, as I get ready to face another interview, I know this will not be my last, not because I am confident of getting through them unscathed or will soon be looking for another one, but I believe one needs to encounter situations such as these where you are periodically checked whether you are an updated version, to check whether you still have it in you, see if you are market ready, see if you are abreast with what's happening in the world around you, and whether you need to upgrade your skills and get to the library again. It busts the notion, if there was any, that I am overconfident and that I can handle any interview or situation.

I also have a matrimonial interview coming up as well next month, which will include a distinguished panel of interviewers, who will all have a very personal motive behind the whole exercise. They will be intending to scrape through the pit of the Earth to unearth the answers they have been waiting to listen, ironically coating the whole exercise with lots of sugar and honey.

So here I am, waiting to be interviewed, waiting to present my point of view, and to those interviewers who decide not to take me onboard and assume my incompetence, I say at least give me a chance to prove my incompetence!

Somethings..

There are some simple things in life that just put the zing back in you...like the first spells of rain after summer, talking to someone miles away from you and sharing a hearty laugh as if she is sitting right next you, giggling like a school girl, the cool summer evening breeze, and a terrific game of cricket. They have all happened to me the past few hours, making you think again, like just a few months ago, that there's something good always happening al'round you, something positive, you just have to look round and thank your stars, thank the Almighty.

I had been praying for the rains even before the summer started, summer is a shuddering thought for me, I just cant tolerate the heat, put me in a freezer and I'll gladly endure it, maybe it's an exaggeration, maybe too much of anything is always unbearable. So, I'll gladly welcome the rains!!

Talkin to mom is something that always peps me up, she is almost always so full of life, laughing, giggling, catching up on things far and near. She always makes everybody at home, or whatever is left of it, feel like old haggards at the death bed. So there we were chatting up bout whats happening in our lives, Insh'Allah, I'll get to see her soon.

Ahh...Gilly...what an adrenalin rush for us couch potatoes slouching with coke on our comfy sofas and watching one of the best knocks ever in a T20 game. Interestingly, as if on cue, as said by Paulo Coelho, all things trying to portray the same notion of happiness in all the simple things round you, value them, value life, value the loved ones in your life.!!!

Perpetually tested

Have you ever been perpetually tested, like always, never a moment of relaxation, never a time where you get up in the morning and think like well its really a new day, a new beginning. Like you have always been examined, someone testing your skill, well skill is a milder word here, maybe a test of character, for patience, for spirit, for attitude, being continuously thrown in situations where your reaction is monitored keenly and very closely!

You are always told to hang in there; life is always about this they say, about being tested, about facing good and bad situations with equal ease and élan. The last time I was hit, I thought okay now this ends this scrutiny and misery, but hey they say the test isn’t over yet, although the result is just round the corner, it ain’t over till you are dead meat. Also something very frightening, that the result isn’t all that important in this test here, what’s more important is how you keep your cool, how you face the continuous test of patience, how you come out of this heavenly mess created just to see how you fucking react when someone kicks you sometimes, and yeah have a smile all the while. Well getting kicked below the belt is not something I like. Even being kicked once isn’t okay, but I’ll manage, I’ll writhe in pain, roll around, and bear it with a loud and long moan, but what about getting kicked there every week, every few months! How do you handle that? Don’t you wanna just leave the fight; throw your hands up defeated, and give it all up.

Haha, you fucking moron, you can’t get out of this one just by writing this stupid blog. It only ends when you are completely scarred or only if you are dead. I mean I don’t have balls of steel; I ain’t Superman or Hulk, the more topical! I ain’t an angel mate; I cry, I laugh, and it gives me a lot of pain when someone hits me. I’m just a human being trying to manage the punches being thrown at me at a rapid pace and trying to be sane at the same time, with that stupid smile on my face always. Don’t I have anything else to do in life other than handle punches and kicks being thrown at me all the time, everyday, every morning and evening as well.

The most amazing part is I try and have so much fun while I am at this supposedly huge test that I have undertaken to get to the next stage in life. I have been doing what I always wanted to do in life, travel; you know traveling as if someone is paying me to do it, like it’s my job, sometimes at my own expense and sometimes being sponsored by friends and relatives.

Well, now it has been a pretty long examination. This test of life is horrible I tell you. I don’t want to fight anymore, its tiring. I am completely sapped of all the energy I have. I feel the only two things that will save me now are either a catastrophe or a miracle. Oh Lord, how I wish something of that sort strikes me soon, but hey not below the belt this time!