Robbed!!!!

As I said in my last post - I have just a few more days of stay left in Hyderabad. Before leaving this place, I wanted to pen down something about Hyderabad. And what's best way to do it apart from blogging about some of my Good and not so good experiances in Hyderabad?

Let me first start with a not so good incident. It is a story about how I lost 17,000 rupees in just one day. That day is one of the saddest day in my life. It is also the happiest day of my life. This is a true story and it has happened to me. But before going into the details, I would first go into a flash back and set the stage for the Grand finale.

I had finished my engineering from a small and sleepy town - Belgaum. Like everyone I too dreamed of making it big in the Mecca for engineers - Bangalore. I dreamed of becoming a software engineer par excellence. When I went to Bangalore, the scene was very different. I say thousands and thousands of engineers fighting for jobs. Each and everyone of them seemed cleaverer and better equiped then me. I might have dropped my resume in more then 100 companies. I gave interview in a dozen componies. I did not get selected anywhere. I began to feel the heat of reality.

Then it came, almost like a flash. While I was roaming in the streets of Bangalore searching for a job, I got a call from a friend saying that there are interviews going on in spice. I was pessimistic about this. I still went on for the interview. I beat about 100 odd people who had come for the interview and got the job!!!! God!!! that was the happiest day of my life. Fame - here comes Susheel.

But there was a small clinch in the grand plan. I was not taken in as a software engineer. I was selected as an inplementation engineer. My work, among other things involved - Climbing telecom towers for installing antenna, carrying the toolkit around the town for my seniors, pulling the rope with all my strength to mount the antenna, sweeping the shelter after all the work has been completed etc. In short I was supposed to do the closest thing an engineer can do to be become a labarour. Heck!!!! this was not why I came to Bangalore all the way from Belgaum. I am a distinction holder in engineering, I deserved better. Ohh come on!!! even my professors in colledge said that I was one of the brightest guys they have come across. I am not supposed to do this!!!! But I had seen the struggle for getting a job. I knew real life and dream are two different and disjoint things. I accepted the job and worked with my mind, body and soul - literally.

It had been alomost 10 months since I had began working in spice. I had even started to think like a labarour. I literally sweated to earn each and every rupee. Then, through a friend (Neelesh) of mine, I got a call for an interview in Hutch - HYDERABAD. I was extremly exited about joing a compony like hutch. After all this was an oppertunity for me to work as an Engineer. I was on cloud nine. I could not wait until I give my interview. Being a very innocent boy, I went ahead and told my seniors about the interview call I had got. I had thought they will be very happy for me. I was wrong. When my seniors came to know I am going for an interview - all hell broke loose.

My seniors began to give me more physcial work. They unnecessarly increased my work load. They perticularly took care that I will work more on the day I was supposed to leave for Hyderabad. It was like - I am having my bus at 9:00 pm in the night and I am working like a mad horse till 8 'O clock in the evening. I was made to travel to different places. I was asked to mount two different antenna's on the tower and made to walk around with the tool kit (which was about 15 Kgs). Naturally, when I got into the bus I was tired and as soon as I sat in the bus I slept like a child.

Back then, I had a tendency to trust anyone and everyone. Blame it on either me being born and bought up in a small town of people who could be trusted or my carelessness. While I was fast asleep, without me knowing, somebody in the bus picked my purse. I used to keep my ATM card in purse. It might seem rediculous now, but I had also scribbled my password in a small telephone directory that i used to carry around and that too was stolen. The thought that someone could pick my purse and use my ATM card just did not pass my mind. A thing like that never happened in Belgaum. It could never happen like that anywhere in the world.

The morning when I touched down Hyderabad, I casually searched for my purse so that I could have a hot cup of tea. It was my big day and in two hours time I had my interview. Just imagine the shock I got when i discovered that my purse was missing!!! Just imagine what would happen to you if - you are in a new place, you do not know the local lingo, you purse has just been stolen, you dont even have a rupee to call up someone and ask for help and to top all that - you have an interview of your lifetime in another two hours. I was nuts. My mind became blank for a few seconds. My body was numb for a few minutes. Words are not enough to express what I was feeling at that time. It felt as if I was falling in a bottomless pit.

I somehow convinced a local shopkeeper that I am an engineer who has come here for an interview - and borrowed 2 rupees from him. I called up a colledge friend (Anil reddy) of mine and told him my situation. I requested him to come and help me out. He was my guardian angel that day. He came to me as fast as he could. He gave back the the 2 rupees to shopkeeper and thanked him. He then took me over to his room and asked me to freshen up. He then took me on his bike and rode me to Hutch office as fast as he could. He wished me luck and said he was confident that I would be selected. I reached Hutch office exactly at 9:00 - dot on time for my interview.

In the meantime I had regained my composure. I had the sense enough to call up ICICI bank and enquire about my account balance. I was again shell shocked to know that my balance was now 200 rupees. Somebody had drawn all the cash from my account. Somedody had stolen 17,000 rupees from my account. Only I know how hard I had struggled to earn those 17,000 rupees. I know how it feels like when somebody walks away with your money because of YOUR carelesness. Less then 5 minutes after I came to know about the money I had lost - I was called in for the interview.

Till this day I do not know how I cleared that interview. A thousand and one questions were running in my mind. I was crying inside. But somehow I cleared the interview. Even to this day my interviewers (Thomas sir and Narayana sir) say that I was brillent when answering the questions. After I cleared the tech interview I was sent over to the VP of Hutch Andhra Pradesh. He asked me some very routine questions about myself. He later said that he could see the passion I had towerds work. The interview went on soo well that I cleared all the rounds in a single day. By the end of the day, I had my offer letter in my hand as - Transmission planning enginneer. My first big dream had been achived.

Later in the day, I went to the hutch HR and told her my predictament. She (sabita Nanaiah)was kind enough to lend me the money I required to catch a bus back home. I booked my tickets back to Bangalore on that day itself. I did not sleep the entire night. I still remember clutching 200 Rs tighly in my pocket, least somebody steals it.

Thus ended my first day in Hyderabad. I lost a bundel of cash in the morning and was on my way back as an engineer in hutch by the evening. Hyderabad - You have thought me great many lessons. :-)