The Interview
Adi pressed the bell to call the next candidate to Interview. He glanced through the resume while the candidate got seated, looking bright in his new coat.
“So, Mr Ashish, do you read books?” asked Adi straightaway, starting his Interview.
“Yes, sir “, replied Ashish.
“What’s your favourite one?” Adi asked.
“The Secret is my all-time favourite book Sir” replied Ashish. He was well prepared for this question which he had marked under the hobbies section questions list.
Adi replied, “That’s interesting, looks everyone loves The Secret in this campus.”
Ashish smiled and was thinking about how to differentiate his perceptive of the secret from others.
“What is that you like about this book?” Adi asked.
“Sir, this book is so positive that it makes you believe that anything is possible and all that you need is to wish truly from the heart,” Ashish said.
“Really? Adi asked again.
Ashish wasn’t sure how to answer the “really” part but persisted “Sir, all I can say is that this book brings some certainty to your life if you can understand and relate to it.”
“That’s Nonsense. Just reading a book and believing the Universe to work for you is absurd. The Universe is as lazy as the rest of us” Adi said and asked him again “Now tell me what do you mean by the word certainty?”
Ashish felt that all he can do now is to take a free practice for his next Interview and said: “certainty is something which makes you sure about something.”
“Exactly and tell me what are you sure about in life?” asked Adi.
“Sir, maybe nature,” said Ashish, trying not to add anything more to that list.
“It’s a Nil. There is nothing in this world which you can be sure of, and this is what makes the companies like us thrive. Industries like us are dedicated to dispelling uncertainty – like financial consulting, which tries to provide a sense of certainty utilizing their strategic forecasting and planning. ”
Ashish kept listening to Adi like a mute spectator.
Adi continued speaking “In fact, we feel less stressed when facing a task over which we have control and autonomy than the other way round. This feeling explains everything, and it all comes down to comfort and happiness.”
Ashish nodded his head, accompanied by a serious face to indicate his understanding.
“Okay Ashish, I am giving you another chance to get back. Now, imagine you started having some problem with your mobile touch screen, and some of the letters cannot be typed. One section of the touch screen has gone bad, and you need to send a mail badly. What will you do?” asked Adi.
“I might use my friend’s mobile sir” replied Ashish.
“You are travelling alone in the middle of the desert” replied Adi sharply.
“Sir, frankly speaking, I had encountered this problem personally as well. When a pixel goes bad, then it’s almost impossible to revive it back. Sometimes pressing hard works, but I believe in getting the touch screen replaced than messing with it” replied Ashish.
Adi was keenly listening to Ashish and asked him “What about the mail?”
“Sir, I will try to write the mail trying to avoid those letters which can’t be typed or even type with mistakes to get the mail sent,” said Ashish.
Adi remained silent for a minute.
“You know what I like about these interviews; it helps me read a person with his answer. In fact, I had the same touch screen problem today, and I had to send the same urgent mail today. Changing the touch screen or asking a friend’s mobile was the last thing in my mind. I dictated my mail which became words on the screen but still couldn’t send the mail as the send button wasn’t functioning."
Adi Continued, "I tried in both landscape and portrait but of no help. Then I tried finding an app which can help me to reverse the orientation of the phone screen and make me utilize the working part of the touch screen and believe me; I found one. I got the mail sent."
"Now coming to the typing of letters, I tried asking Google, and as always it didn’t disappoint me. It led me to a solution where I downloaded a keyboard app with bigger keys, and even the letters there gets typed on substitution basis just like our good old button type phones, and my problems were solved.” Adi said without a break making his point.
Ashish felt embarrassed as he couldn’t arrive even at one of these solutions, he looked down as if he missed polishing his shoes.
Seeing Ashish feeling bad, Adi said, “You confuse your limit to the world’s limit. When you find yourself wondering how to proceed with a certain problem, you should explore what other people are doing."
"If I have a business problem, I look at how my competitors handle it. What you see as your problem may have already been solved by someone else. You may not just notice it because their problem might look slightly different.”
Ashish shook his head and answered “Yes Sir “
Adi said “Listen, Ashish, find your passion not just for making big money or career but at least not to get bored of working. We are living at that time of history, where the ability to design our lives is much greater than ever.”
Note :
Above is an episode which was written for my second book “ A Story between the Lines”.
However, most of it couldn’t find its place in the book owing to the word count and continuity issue.