An Accident

Some people are simply careless. They just cant be trusted to be responsible, not even for themselves even when the matter at hand could pretty well decide the future course of their lives. On one hand, you have people who grab at opportunities as they come along with both their hands and on the other, you have those that are careless enough to let them slip by. What is perhaps more disturbing is the fact that despite it all, they do not seem to be perturbed by the situation either. I mean, what kind of person gets a call from an esteemed B school, travels a long way for the interview and misses it because he is not carrying the documents specified as mandatory??? Yup you guessed it, it was me…

Well, I had a call from NMIMS in Mumbai and was supposed to be there at the institute for my GD and PI. Well, careless as I am, I overlooked the basic requirement of a personal details form that they required, duly filled. Well for those who know me, had I been alone, I might well have turned back and returned home but fortunately (yeah, I know, its surprising that I do know whats good for me!) I was accompanied by my cousin. On her insistence (and the fact that I did not wanna set a bad example for her) I got the necessary print outs from a cyber café. Let me tell you, if you think there are a million cyber cafés around here, you are seriously mistaken. The only café I found was in a secluded corner near the infamous local stations of Mumbai (and this was after a long caucusing session with one of her friends who apparently studied here or something of the sort.) The bloody place charged me Rs. 10 per page for the print outs. Daylight robbery I say. Beggars cant be choosers though, right?

Well we finally got back at the venue with the duly filled forms. However, this melee had caused me a delay of about 45 minutes and in this time, the GDs had already been done with and the interviews were half way through too… No amount of pleading and bargaining on my part could budge the lady there and convince her to kindly make an exception for me. (Had I had even an iota of sensibility I might have shoved in a Rs.100 note but then again, I aren’t that smart am I?) There goes an opportunity to pursue a high flying career with an MBA from NMIMS…

Those who know me well, will know that there would be another motive to this post than just telling you what happened. Simply missing an interview would not be reason enough to put it up on my blog, right? You got me.

What intrigued me most was my sister’s reaction to the whole situation. So now that we have laid the basic framework of what had happened, here is her reaction.

When I found out that I did not have the form (which was supposed to be downloaded and printed) I could (and in hindsight probably should) have informed the invigilating officer but instead, decided I needed a walk. I called my sis and informed her of my folly and asked her if she could see some cyber café close by. Well she absolutely freaked out for starters. She pressed the panic button and froze with her mouth agape for starters. I laughed out loud at her expression. (well, what do you expect from me?) well, a minute later she gathered herself (sort of… she is kinda used to being around me after all) and was downright appalled at the expression (or rather the lack of ‘em on my face, not a frown, or a tensed brow or… you get the picture) In her words “do you have the slightest clue of what is happening here? How can you be so nondescript about it?” My response, “Yup, I do know whats happening here. You are freaked out and downright paranoid while I am calm (and might I add, I was cool as a cucumber…) There are three ways you could react to a situation like this. First, you could panic, be thrown into inactivity by allowing yourself to be overwhelmed by the situation. In this case of course, you would be so disturbed, you wouldn’t be able to think at all and hence wouldn’t be able weigh your options clearly. You could end up in an imbalanced frame of mind thus impeding any efforts on your part to try and salvage something out of this situation. Second, you could panic a little and then go about hurriedly getting through the task but still end up the loser because you were perturbed by the situation and didn’t weigh your options as well as you could have. Third, you could be calm with what could be described as nerves of steel to some (and absolute unabashed shamelessness to most) and realize a couple of things.

A> You don’t have the form which is an absolute must (which is the reason for paranoia and you don’t need to be Einstein to figure that out and I don’t really know why I am putting this down as a reason anyways)

B> Should you inform the authorities, they might probably help you get the form but that would really deal a terrible blow to your aspirations cause I really don’t think the invigilators would take too kindly to your folly.

C> In all probability, if you came later with all the documents in place at a later stage, they might consider you for a later batch and you could get away with it by telling them how busy you are and how committed you are to your work. That I am sure would be something that would work in your advantage rather than impede your chances for the same.

D> Having had been calm, you would be in a better position to handle the GD and PI that lie in front of you.

E> After the long journey in the local (and the terrible squeezing, shoving and getting crushed), you could really use a walk to relieve the stiffness…

We did things my way. She of course, was shocked at the level of shamelessness I had just achieved…