Hardly do I miss an opportunity to let go off my headphones hanging around my neck. But I’m glad it happened. I did lose the opportunity to listen to my favorite folk numbers but it gave me a lot of time to ponder over me and myself.
Let me rewind a little, starting back from a couple of fortnights. After spending the busiest three and a three quarter months of my life amidst hectic school assignments, projects, part-time, team activities, exams and last but not the least – the stupid blondes at EVK, I ended up being on the losing front – two straight B+’s in two courses.; followed up with an A-, that if not resurrected the lost pride, but veiled the dishonor to some extent. But carefree and excited about having to end it all; I was living a gleeful life in SFO with my dearest and closest. Then suddenly in the middle of the day my phone rung; not even in my slightest of imagination did I expect an interview call and guess from where – PriceWaterHouseCoopers. No doubt I was excited, but not anxious about it because I already had a bunny in my bag. Thoughtless and fearless about the interview next day I went through the requirements and gazed through my resume. Having nothing to lose, I spend the whole night snoring and sleeping in order to prevent yawning over yet another boring interview. I answered most of the questions but couldn’t have escaped with screwing up on minor things, something that I had mastered over a period of time. This was so unlike my first interview with Microsoft where I spend the whole night recollecting the lost links between C and data structures and eventually caught clueless over the new format of questions not provided by the crack the interviews booklet. I started my day with checking my e-mails and was astonished to receive an offer from PWC. With no opportunity in months and suddenly two in my court, I was overwhelmed with joy and self belief. Joining PWC seemed daunting with taking up a course in Summer and moving out to San Jose, I would have become a tennis ball bouncing between San Jose and Los Angeles to take up exams. But I eventually decided to go for PWC because “paisa bolta hai meri jaan”.
Back to Amtrak, I started my first train journey in the US from Emeryville to Los Angeles, alone and music-less. Calm and quiet, I had a lot of time to discover what went wrong over the previous months. With too much to do in too little time, I was totally exhausted, trying to do everything and ending up achieving nothing. With wavering focus and dying penetration I could barely locate the target. Life seems so easy when you have no distractions around and you feel like you could rattle Rocky Balboa with a single punch. You can have this feeling only under two situations– either when you are brimmed with belief or when you are half a dozen patiala pegs down. Don’t doubt me, I was suffering from the former disease. I hope I have a lot of time to do something that I have been yearning for over a period of time – visiting six flags, reading the Bhagvat Gita, getting my amrikan driving license and driving a rented car from LA to SFO. The foremost and the latest are yet achievable, but still uncertain about the remaining. Finally, with an honest and pleading heart, I pray for Delhi Daredevils to win the engrossing IPL 2009 and to say goodbye to an engrossing season that I never wish to look back to.
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