PLACEMENT TIME...

Sitting in my house ,my mind drifts to the days when our career was decided. Placement time. Being the P.R along with senthil ,the special moments during the past one and a half years flash through my mind. let me begin the story......

I becoming the p.r was due to the generosity of my class mates(guys) who wanted to devote time to themselves and for their cat and gre preparation (mostly futile attempts) not considering that I would also have some aspirations if not to the extent of theirs. it began one night where the guys were planning for a trip to some place ,as our department was the tour agent for the whole college.It was during the mid of fifth semester and none of the guys had realizedthe gtravity of the situation that recession had afflicted many companies and that opportunities were hard to come by.

Every one was palying the pointing game suggesting the other persons name for THE JOB.Finally as it goes , I in interest of the class took up the job,as a challenge to prove to these guys ,inspite of my work i could get a better company than them. This was in stark contrast to the other classes where there was so much competition for the p.r job.

I, then knew that the path had been set for me where i would have to make a lot of sacrifices.Still I needed a helping hand ,but I did not want to entrust any responsibilities to the very guys who shunned the ultimate responsibility .Many lunchless afternoons, sleepless nights followed.

To add insult to injury many futile placement meetings at the hostel, many an attempt to make the guys study ,all the warnings abt the preparation of the cse guys and the limited opportunities were scoffed at by one FINE GENTLEMAN , as you all know.

There was a plan which went totally awry! the toppers where to help the weak guys during the fifth sem leave and this prep was to last a week. The irony is that none of the guys other than me stayed in the hoste. The hostel wore a deserted look with the fourth floor of g3 block having one lone occupant for 2 weeks. This also marked my one year 2 month exile fom my native place.Despite the fact that no one was in the hostel i managed to engage myself with certain other works in the college , sometime till four in the morning.

As I trudged wearily from the college towards the hostel in the wee hours , i would think about the refusal of the guys which would make my rsolve een firmer .Two weeks of monotony and exhaustion had its toll on me with a few gray hair springing up.This is the time when i got in to the bad habit of sleeping late ,for which I still feel now.

College reopened,more placement meetings, more futile attempts to make the class study and in addition to that my never ending workload and skipped breakfasts, lunches and sleep all transformed me into a person weak by appearance but with a further stronger intention to prove all the guys wrong. As senthil once commented in this blog about me as a skinny lizard like stature (periya's post friends forever ), so i became THE LIZARD.

The sixth sem was lightning quick ,only did all guys realize that time was too short to prepare for the placements. It was time that someone helped me as the job was overwhelming.Then came satheesaran who reluctantly helped me , his lack of interest and fear of underpreparation made him to quit the job.
Then I turned to my old aide senthil,who was too willing to take the job.Only then i realized that he was much fitter fo the job than me. April over.. May started...It was time to face the epicenter of politics in our college ,THE PLACEMENT CELL.

Our(me and senthil's) excursions to placement cell are moments to savour. Getting up by 7, breakfast at famous cafe going to the cell at 8 and sitting ther doing nothing.We were burning our time for the sake of the class , not to mention many ugrateful wretches who still wasted their time and spoiled the study of others also. Lunch was also at famous cafe,not even annalakshmi .Even the frugal meals we ate were to be accounted for.

Attempts were made to arrange classes durin the sem hols ,which all ended up as mega flops:) ,one of my greatest achievements.The next was the collection of money for placements. Once again the barest minimum of 1000 was collected of which almost 3/4 of the money was spent on file,dd to placement cell, xerox blah blah.With the remaining amount we were to manage our food, trips to off campus interviews and what not,for which the accounts were asked by ,"THE MANAGER OF JP MORGAN &CHASE BANK" which financed our vemtures. Pardon the pun here. Only if they knew that the other depts on an average had collected atleast 2000 inr per head,thy would no have asked.God save those poor souls & pardon their ignorance !!!

I the meantime periya was elected as the p.r ,a welcome sign that the girls were atleast into someting , if am not wrong in this context.I dunno how she managed abt but her help was great.

THE D-DAy
TCS , the savior , the ultimate hope for 70% of the class was to come on one fine friday.Many attempts were made to get tcs questions from other colleges last minute cramming ups and wht not. Not only I.T the whole college was undergoing this regeime.Written test- a great debate arose that the toppers should not write tcs written for themselves. Much resistance was expected from the girls side but the twist was , it came from the boys. Plans were made as to who should be seated beside whom.

The persons who scoffed at me during the meetings came to us saying that they knew nothing technical and requested me to put them in a h.r panel. I thought how these persons are, ready t sacrifice their pride easily if they need to accomplish a task.Senthil refused to hear them, but i considered their request, a decision I wuld regret later. Request is a more honourable and flowery way of expressing what they said.

After much melodrama the tcs written test began in the cc lab, with few helping hands from the boys and much from the girls.The end of the written test was marked by many happy faces some releived and some faces with tears.

INTERVIEW DAY
Interview day dawned for us at the palcement cell with me and senthil alone(no one to help) occupying places outside the panels at 7 in the morning. Not a single drop of water had reached our stomachs which had started to growl with hunger bu then. We were also surpisedto find almost 20-30 cse guys occupying the panels most of them where chased away later to make way for p.r. See the difference between I.T & C.S.E. This difference became much obvious in placements also.

I.T slot was in the noon . With much dificulty and co-ordination with the other p.rs we were able to figure out the type of the panels for most of the panels. Then came I.t with me and senthil co-ordinating with the sandwich pc's to make our guys feel comfortable with their panels. evn we wer forced to switch panels and resumes from one panel to another after the resumes had reached the interviewer.Panel switching took place as fast as context switiching witin seconds. Additional effort was required to thwart the attempts of the cse guys to barge in before the i.t guys.

Interview was over for i.t but no time to relax. payback time helping the other p.rs to safely seat their guy, return for the help done by them.

TCS interview over. Many anxious persons left the j block. Dinner for h.r ,served by p.rs.
Time 11.30 : an entire contigent of tired p.rs and helpers rushed in to fill their stomachs with what was left over. For me and senthil it was the first of anything to enter our mouths. First morsel of food at 11.30 , standing and waking for more than 10 hours continuously. Wow I have put my ncc training to good use.
12-30 shifting thing to placement cell despite tiredness.
1-3.30 am waiting for tcs result in plcement cell
4.00 am returning to hostel with the news that result was to be announced the next day.

SUNDAY 9.00 am -3.30 pm waiting for tcs result n college amidst anxious phone calls and false alams that the result had been released.3.30 tcs selcted list announced.Before we could note down the names and convey the info to girls certain kind hearted philanthropists through phone informed the result to the girls.argument ensued between me and periya regarding the timely informing of result only to be solved by senthil's intervention .
TCS Count not upto the mark. Still a long way to go.
I end this post fo now promising to follow it up with a sequel.If u have some memories regarding placements u can please feel free to share them.