The Other Side of Limits/3
“What lies on the other side of limits, hon?”
Aditi Sanyal had dared to pursue B. Tech. (IT) in spite of being a tongue-tied girl. Her relatives did warn her parents —“Why invest in an engineering degree for her, Dhiren da? Cracking interviews requires street-smartness. Your daughter barely speaks in public.” Luckily, her parents took the chance. Aditi herself had hoped that there would be some job openings that would somehow overlook her ‘un-smartness’ and value her mark-sheets instead.
And yet, here she was, living her worst nightmare — a group discussion. She was one of the 4 students from her entire batch who could crack the written tests for this organization, but she knew that this would be her last round here. Why did she even waste time on openings that used GD for elimination? She shouldn’t have come here today.
The 14 candidates around her were just short of bickering, never letting each other complete a sentence. Aditi listened on gloomily. By the time she would frame a sentence in her mind, and gather the courage to utter it, the panel would have moved to a different point. But were they making any point at all? To her, it sounded like a whirlwind of words flying in every direction, never quite reaching anywhere. Aditi felt somewhat irritated. Compelled by her own irritation, she made a succinct point, and sat back to watch her point drown without a ripple.
Instead though, there was a lull, and the drowsy-looking evaluator sat up to look at her, as did some of the other candidates. Was her voice too shrill? Embarrassed, Aditi now felt compelled to fill the awkward silence. She added two more points, both crisp and sensible. Crisp, ‘coz she wasn’t a talker. Sensible, ‘coz beating around the bush would need her to spend more words. The panel resumed its rhythm. Aditi added bits and pieces here and there.
It was a 4 hours’ wait before the GD results were announced. Although Aditi knew in her heart that it was a futile wait, it turned out that she was among 2 of the 15 candidates in her panel to have cleared the round.
The feeling was strange. It was as if she had moved a mountain with her own bare hands. It was as if she had changed fundamentally as a person, and would never go back to who she was 4 hours back.
Aditi called her parents to let them know that she had been cleared for the next round, and therefore she would be late. “Be careful on your way back” — they said, saving the congratulations for the final outcome.
Aditi didn’t know if she would walk home with an offer letter that day, but somehow, it didn’t matter anymore.
