Awareness B(c)log

"Tell me something in the field of general knowledge, some area that you think you know a lot about." After 25 mins. of shameless show of stupidity in the interview room, the delegates, if I dare call them such glitzy names, scaled another summit of blasphemy.

(Now, don't post comments regarding the usage of "blasphemy". I know I use it more than often, seldom preserving the gravity ;)). Coming back to this incidence, we had the interview sessions of perhaps one of the largest earners of foreign exchange in India. The level of awareness about the company in the campus was miserable. They thought that the firm was a cigarette manufacturing one and many of them had not even heard its name. Those company guys, the head of the Munger factory, some new recruits and some so-called HR persons...they had decided to use the services of a few of us in the interests of their company. The habits and ways of people definitely change after they get to see the shine of their pockets, and those newly recruited chaps were pillars of this truth. The factory man, perhaps hardened by the ways of the bihari workers in his factory, presented a silver streak on his head, and the crunchy white shirt reflected him as someone presumably wise. The one with lesser crop on his head, the HR guy, donned a maroon shirt, the perfect reflection of his present state, I thought. The three new recruits, a lady from KGP , one fron GHY and the other from no man's land, all tried their level best to sport executive looks, faring none better than salespersons.

So we got this mail from the authorities regarding the company's intentions. No. of applications touched the hundred mark, despite the lull due to the impending exams. No crop was left standing, every sown seed was reaped...some borrowed their CV's and some fools like me tried to be overtly buoyant; some became conveners of never-to-be things, some won medals, some got inducted into an XYZ hall of fame and much more blah...the remaining fools like me were too much absorbed in their world of make-belief that they forgot that the form was not something for the avocational courses. Some over-enthusiasts from the junior batch seemed too eager to secure a job and ecstatically, cashed in on this "opportunity".

All said and done, the penultimate day dawns and we get the mail regarding those new-recruits' desire to have some informal chat sessions with us. Of course these "tips" in such informal sessions find a few takers. With hardly 2 hrs left for the day, I was one of those (only) 20 who gathered under the moon-y sky. The sermon was short, and basically focused on stressing that their company was not the place for good-for-nothing people, and all I did was to smile, wryly. They said they wanted people with healthy GPA's, if not studies, they should be conveners and if not conveners, they should be sports persons...all doors closed for me. They never said said a word about budding musicians or authors...the only points in my resume. Nonetheless, the awareness motion was passed and we set to discuss on the group discussion aptitude. Barring those guests, the people told they found the only speaker of the night in me. I was satisfied...with the false hope of making it through the cut off criterion.

With all the mice in my stomach having eaten all my lunch, I arrived at the presentation place the next day. They had already shortlisted those they thought fit for the GD and here they were, wasting the precious moments of about 150 other non-deserving students. An hour long presentation ensues and we are left in awe of the remuneration he mentions at the end of his speech, that Munger guy. Wait ends, the names are put up...my dreamy eyes are taken aback. I am not here...I am deemed unfit...holy mother, I am not shortlisted. Amidst the clamor, I find a familiar voice calling my name, proclaiming its selection. What else could I do than congratulate him on his success...but wait...his form was the same, if not identical to mine...alas! he had a better GPA, a million times better than mine. Reality spat on my face..."You fool, go and study...writing blogs or playing a guitar or planning to author books is of no use. You are an engineer...do something that fits you...huh...guitarist, blogger, author...if not study at least start playing...All music/blogs/literature and no study/play makes Vivek an unfit boy". Realization dawns. I am unfit. Wearing a smile that expressed more of agony than satisfaction, I went up to him and gave him some valuable "tips" regarding the GD he was to partake. Dejected, despondent, i came back to the hostel. The only humor for the day was the faces of those who went to the presentation in their formals, hoping a call.

Then came the point on which this account is being written. One of my friends who was shortlisted and had cleared the interview, came screaming injustice. Honestly, I was not unhappy to say the least. OK, so he comes with a pack of cigarettes, and a soft drink, sweating and fuming over the interviewers. The whole point of the interview was unworthily try and prove the non-mechanical and non-chemical unworthy for the company.

The interview starts with a a question on the favorite subject. He says maths...out-rightly rejected. Physics...called a non-subject. Bio-engineering...unfit......they don't need bio. people. My friend swears silently...they ask him to pick a subject of which they can sniff the proceedings. He chooses thermodynamics.
The first question is shot with a victorious smile..."What do you think led to Gibbs thinking about the dynamics of his equation? what could have been the motivation behind this equation?"
"Fuck...how do I know?"
He was silent. Second question...what is "certain thing" in thermodynamics?
...still, silence follows.
"It seems you don't know too much about this subject."
He argues that he a Biotech student and need not know so much of thermodynamics. His words fall on deaf ears.

"OK, tell me something in the field of general knowledge, some area that you think you know a lot about."
"Cuban missile crisis..."pat comes the reply.
"No...this is not relevant for us...give me another option"
Silently... "Fucker...how do i know what suits you?" With a grim look, he says "World war II"
"Nope...chose something else...", the interviewer says, uninterested in his proposition.
"Indira Gandhi assassination..." is that ok you fool...
"OK chhodo, I will ask you on my own. Tell me why do you think the Chandrayaan failed?"
Surprised, he said all the heat resistance...and height above the surface theory.
"Not satisfactory...why did it fail? which coating melted? what stuff was it made of?"
Silence.
"Sir how do i know...I mean I am not supposed to know the chemicals and the materials"
"Nope...you are an engineer, and so you are supposed to know. OK, then tell me, what was the reason for the failure of the Pokhran tests...you might be hearing a lot these days...?"
Silence.
"Sir, I dont know."
The same engineer thing follows. No words other than the worst abuses he could think of.

And rightly so...what else are we supposed to be aware of as engineers, and Indians and more so, humans? The prospective vaccines of HIV infections, the reason for the spread of the swine flu and the chemicals in its vaccines, the principals behind the launching of satellites, the compositions of satellites, the principal behind the latest nano-technology, the research of the Nobel prize winners, or latest the software developed by some blue chip company?

What else are we supposed to know as Indians? the Chinese incursions, the Pakistani ISI plans, or the motivations behind such activities, the current chief ministers and governors of all the 28 states, the latest foreign policy or rather the motivations behind those, the financial deficit and inflation and their primary reasons, or may be the development activities...

What else are we supposed to know, or be aware of as humans...the declining moral values, the increasing global warming, the melting glaciers, the threatening nuke developments in other countries, the global meltdown and its causes and solutions, the difference between slowdown recession and depression, or the no of cities going green, the latest update on the terrorist attacks, the biography of the US presidents or the gobal personalities mentioned in the list of most powerful persons?

Certainly not. We are not supposed to any of these as what we are. Does it not suffice to know what we want to and not what we are "supposed" to? Does it indicate, that by limiting my options to something that i am not interested in, and then clogging my brain on that issue and proclaiming my ignorance, is something that shoots up the respect for interviewers?

Hell no. I am satisfied with my guitar, with my literary bend and with my desire to author a book rather than go for something I am uninterested in.

Memory is a strange phenomenon, a relative to truth but not its twin. And mind you memory is limited. So why choke myself with too much of undesired alertness? Why clog the brain, even with benign tumors of awareness?