An Interview in Bangalore.
‘Future’ is yet to come and ‘past’ has already taken place. The only other difference between the future and the past is that we can remember our past but can’t “remember” the future. Both can’t be changed. Future is in fact the unknown past !
- Suveen Jacob Abraham.
Ron came out of the bathroom after a quick shower in the morning. He was getting ready to attend an interview conducted by Infosys in Electronic City, Bangalore. After completing his B.Tech (Bachelors degree in Computer Science), like any youngster with lot of aspirations, he had come to Bangalore in search of a job. He was just one among the many of his age desperately trying out their luck. Though he had already knocked at several doors, none has ever opened so far to reveal to him the predestined road to be travelled to continue his further journey to the unknown destiny.
He was staying at his cousin’s place in Koramangala, near St. Johns Hospital in Bangalore; who was working as a freelance journalist and had left early that day for his work.
He hurriedly put on his clothes. Strewn shabbily across the table was his bag, cellphone, a folder containing his Resume and certificates and his purse. The glow on the cellphone’s screen (which was in silent mode) caught his attention, while he was hurriedly squeezing himself into his brand new Van Heusen shirt, which he had just opened from its cover but hadn’t even bothered to unbutton.
He glanced at his cellphone and saw two missed calls from his friend and college mate Nikhil who was also in Bangalore in search of a job. Ron's cellphone was in silent mode, and he hadn't heard the phone ringing. He refrained from calling his friend (Nikhil) back, for several reasons –
1.) He was in a hurry for his interview,
2.) He had lied to his friend earlier that he was going to meet his aunt that day. So he decided not to call him back!
Ron was always hesitant and abstains from informing his friends or relatives about his interviews to avoid the embarrassment he has to face, and the peering looks while disclosing his interview results if he has not been selected. He was also very disappointed after several repeated failures in getting through an interview.
In a hurry Ron collected his belongings and his bag and hurried out of the room.
He was on the street and was walking briskly down the busy road to catch a taxi to electronic city, to reach the venue on time. It was a busy street with shops on either side which comprised of tea shops, medical shops, internet cafe and few small restaurants. Being a Monday morning the street was flooded with the hustle and bustle of people swarming around like busy bees.
Ron was intercepted by a beggar begging for alms. Though he was annoyed and got irritated and tried to walk away, seeing the miserable plight of the beggar, he decided to drop few coins. He instinctively reached down to his trouser’s pocket to take out his purse. But to his utter dismay and horror, his pocket was empty. His purse was not there. In the haste he had forgotten to take his purse from the table. He was at his wits end. He was totally disappointed and frustrated. He didn’t have time to walk all the way back to his room for his purse. He was totally perplexed and was in a dilemma on what to do. He finally decided to borrow some money from a tea vendor from where he usually has tea.
The owner gave a peering look at him when he explained his plight. It was one of the busiest hours of the day and there were lot of customers in the shop and the owner was busy managing his customers.
Suddenly there was a loud screeching sound of tires and blaring of horns. Ron heard a blood curdling scream and he instantly turned back. It was the beggar who had asked for alms. He was in the middle of the road and had just narrowly missed from being hit by a taxi. The beggar was crossing the road and hadn't noticed the speeding taxi. Upon seeing the beggar, the taxi driver instantly stepped on his brakes, nearly missed the beggar by few inches and came to a halt few feet away from the beggar. The driver thrusted his head out of his cab and started shouting at the beggar. The entire crowd on the street held their gaze riveted at the scene unfolding in front of them, but none dared to interfere into it. But some elderly folks standing nearby pacified the driver and asked him to move on. Soon everyone on the road was back on their own tracks. The topic of conversation of the people in the tea shop shifted to the beggar and the taxi.
The tea shop owner handed Ron a Rs.100 note and continued with his busy work. He showed no gesture even when Ron gave a warm smile and thanked him for his timely help. Though he felt it a bit rude, he walked on thinking about his interview and trying to forget the brief events that took place that morning - missing his purse, the annoying beggar, the taxi, the commotion in the street and hostile behavior of the tea shop owner.
Ron came back to his senses. He realized that he didn't have enough money to hire a taxi and hence has to opt travelling by city bus. Buses are usually very crowded and not frequent and any delay may interfere with his reaching his destination on time. He walked briskly towards the bus stop.
An overcrowded bus to E-city was just leaving the bus stop and he instantly ran to catch that bus. He tried to squeeze himself into the jam-packed bus. He stood there with abated breath and with hardly any space to breathe.
The bus took him to E-city much earlier than he had anticipated. Though there were some traffic congestions on the way, it reached E-city on time.
He tried to push his way out of the bus. People were thronging to get down, and a huge crowd was waiting right outside, to get in. As he was climbing down the bus, he accidently stepped on the toes of a six year old child who was right behind him with her mother and the little girl instantly cried out. The plump lady upon hearing her daughter’s cry, arrogantly pushed him away. He tripped down the steps but due to the heavy crowd he didn’t fall down but unfortunately sprained his ankle. An excruciating pain shot through his body from his ankle. He stood at the bus stop for a while and tried to walk slowly. He felt much better but had to limp a little bit while walking.
He had to cross the road and had a ten minutes walk to reach Infosys. He walked forward, limping all his way towards a parked truck and tried to cross the road.
As he was crossing, a speeding taxi was fast approaching. Little did he realize, as he was totally engrossed thinking about his interview and dealing with his pain and anxiety, that he still went forward. The taxi driver hadn’t seen Ron at first as he was shadowed by the truck and when he noticed him crossing the road, Ron had almost reached the middle of the road. Acting on his reflexes Ron tried to leap forward but due to the sprained ankle he couldn't do so. Though the taxi driver instantly cut off the throttle and stepped on his brakes, he couldn't stop the car on time and it hit Ron. He was thrown down.
The taxi driver stepped out of his vehicle cursing himself and moaning that it was such an unfortunate day for him. People gathered around and tried to help Ron to get up. He was still in his senses but had lot of bruises. As he fell down he threw his bag which was clutched on his hand onto the ground and so his head hit on the bag thus averting catastrophic head injuries.
The only passenger who was in the cab also stepped out but he was blocked from the view by the crowd that had gathered around Ron.
People started shouting and abusing the driver. In an instant Ron recognized the driver. It was the very same taxi which narrowly missed the beggar in the morning.
It reminded him of the entire incident which Ron witnessed in the morning and in fact it was the very same taxi. The incident he witnessed in the morning appeared to be a prophetic warning to Ron, yet he didn’t realize it until it happened to him !!!
Ron was startled to hear someone shouting his name and saw someone beckoning him. Amidst the chaos, he was relieved to hear a familiar voice. He turned to his side and saw his friend Nikhil who was the lone passenger in the cab. He realized that his friend was in the taxi that passed by him in the morning near the tea shop, creating ruckus in the street.
Nikhil came forward and the people around also assisted him to get on his feet. He was quite alright except for some deep wounds on his right leg and left hand, and a slight bruise on his forehead.
Quickly Nikhil assisted him to the taxi and instructed the driver to take them immediately to St. John’s hospital. Nikhil’s aunt was a doctor in St. John’s Hospital, so he decided to take him there. They got into the cab and Nikhil immediately called up his aunt and spoke to her and informed her that he was on his way with his friend.
On the way, Nikhil glancing at his bag which contained the documents, enquired Ron why he had come there, as he had presumed that he would be out visiting his aunt.
Ron had to admit that he had lied to him the other day and told him about his interview at Infosys. Though he was in pain and agony, he briefly narrated all the events in the morning and that he had never dreamt that Nikhil was in the taxi which narrowly missed the beggar near his apartment.
Nikhil nodded his head and grinned. He explained that he had also come to attend the very same interview and had tried to reach him on his cellphone in the morning to ask whether he would also like to join.
Now they were both on their way to the hospital, and both of them couldn't attend the interview!
Ron gave an apologetic smile and Nikhil nodded his head and assured him that it was fine, and that it was only just another interview among the many he had attended, but couldn't get through.
They both sat in silence as the driver took them through the busy alleys of Bangalore. Ron was trying to get himself accustomed to the pain and anxiety. Except for the intermittent honking of their cab and the sounds of the people on the busy roads, silence and calm had settled in the cab. Nikhil was pondering deep and contemplating the events that took place in the morning and he finally broke the silence.
He spoke to Ron, “By the way you were lucky that the beggar came to you in the morning...
If the beggar hadn’t annoyed you begging for alms, you wouldn’t have realized that you had forgotten the purse and would have boarded a taxi and would have been in a very embarrassing situation when you are about to pay the fare and then realize you had no money.”
Ron nodded his head and said. “That was the only good thing that had happened to me today morning”.
Nikhil continued, " It was so unfortunate that you met with this accident, but
if only you hadn't lied to me about your visit to your aunt’s place and told me about the interview, we would both have gone together in a taxi for the interview and this accident wouldn't have happened.”
Ron frowned. Still Nikhil continued,
“If you had called me back after seeing the missed calls in your cellphone this morning, this accident wouldn’t have happened as again we would both have gone together in a taxi.”
“If you hadn't forgotten your purse you would have caught a taxi yourself and would have reached here on time and could possibly not have met with this fate.”
“If you hadn't walked upto the tea shop to borrow money, I would have seen you walking on the road when my driver stopped the car and would have given you a lift in my cab, thus averting this accident.”
“If you hadn't boarded the first bus which was just leaving when you arrived at the bus stop, you would have reached E-city a bit late and my taxi would have passed by and you wouldn’t have been hit.”
“If, while you were stepping out of the bus, hadn’t stepped on the little girl’s toes, you wouldn’t have been pushed by the lady and wouldn’t have sprained your ankle and could have swiftly leapt forward, and away, on seeing the oncoming cab and thus could have escaped from being hit.”
Ron was totally perplexed and nodded his head, still in pain. Nikhil continued,
“If any of the events that had taken place today morning hadn’t been so, you would not have met with this accident and we both would have been able to attend the interview…. So whom should we blame?
Yourself? For lying to me, for forgetting to take the purse ?
or the annoying beggar ?
or the rude tea shop owner ?
or the arrogant lady in the bus who pushed you down thereby bruising your ankle ?
or the taxi driver who hit you ??? "
Ron looked inquisitively into his eyes still more confused. He shook his head and stared out of the window.
They were nearing St.John’s hospital which was near his apartment. The car passed by the bus-stop from where he boarded the bus, the teashop, the place where he confronted the beggar, and his apartment. They passed by the very spot from where Ron started the day’s journey, but he had never dreamt that he would end up in the hospital which was near his cousin’s apartment where he stayed.
He said to himself “ When we start our journey we seldom realize where we’ll end up. The journey will take us to various unexpected destinations, some we may like, some we may not. We can never change our paths, but will only end up where we are destined to go... Future is in fact the unknown past !!! "
He stared out in deep thought, and turned to his side and asked Nikhil, “Is there any other interviews being conducted by any companies which you are aware of?”
Nikhil replied “Well, I guess on Friday there is one. Why?”
Ron nodded his head and said, “Surely we should hire a taxi !”
**************
Penned down by,
Suveen Jacob Abraham.
