Mumbai Chronicle - 28 May 2012

“Hello” I answered my cell.

“Hi, Am I speaking to Prashant?”

“Yes, Who’s this?”

“Hi, I am A (name not disclosed), calling from SSS (company name not disclosed) and we saw your CV on naukri.com. Are you looking for a job?”

“Hi Archana, Yes I am looking for job options.”

“Okay, we are looking for a Business Development person, and your profile seems to be perfect.”

“Okay. Can you give me details of your company?”

“We are an organization, dealing with Automobile giants. I will send you sms, you can check our site. Can you come tomorrow for an interview?”

“Well I need to understand, what will be my profile. Can you email me a JD?”

“I don’t know much about the JD. Better if you come tomorrow and you will be in management position.”

“Okay. Will 11.30 AM be fine? Please send me the address on text along the site name.”

I received a sms with the address, which was like an hour journey in local train from our station. The website was not so impressive and the info was totally not clear on the site. Even though I was negative about the company, I decided to give a visit to them.

Monday morning, my visit to the office was something more badly than I had expected. Well it was an office in a mall, which was still under construction. I located the office, and entered to find 6 people sitting in a small room, around the 3 cocktail tables. Yes, cocktail tables, not office tables. There were some stools to sit for people who visited them, well which I later understood that was borrowed from some neighbourhood shop, because they took back a couple of them in front of me.   Well the person, their so called Co-founder of the company was not present and was expected in 10 minutes, and they asked me to wait for him. Well after 10 minutes, door opened and a small girl of around 7 years walked in, followed by a lady in mid forties, followed by a Nepali boy who I think was the caretaker. Well everyone in office, started to pamper the kid. A stout man, round face, shot hair, clean shaved walked in and everyone greeted him Hi Sir. So finally the man came, who looked like the main guy and was supposed to take my interview.

“HI everyone. Good Morning”

Everyone greeted him back.

“Is there something to eat? Let’s order something?”

“Why? No Breakfast today?” someone enquired

He gave a look at wife and then replied “We had b’fast, but then also lets order something.”

“What you want us to order?”

“Order anything like jalebi.” That’s when he noticed me.

“HI, You are?” he enquired looking at me.

“Sir, He is Prasanth, who came for the interview.”

“Oh! Yes yes. Give me 5 minutes and we will start.”

There was a small one more room, partitioned in the same room. Well they went inside that room, and started cleaning the one cocktail table placed inside. Well the interview was kind of funny, because whole time the person was trying to prove that they are a big company and I should not look at this office set up. It was like they had already hired me, and it was salary negotiation meeting and they were showing me the big picture. Well to end my conversation, we reached the point where I demanded a salary and then he offered me an amount.  Now is the funny part –

“Okay Sir, I understand what is the Job profile. The salary is also okay for now so if you send me the offer letter, I will do my confirmation.”

“Offer letter? Yaar, yahan sab zabaan pe chalta hai (its all about word, i will keep my word.)”

“But sir, there should be something in writing.”

“Okay, if you want, when you join, make one document yourself, and I will sign for you.”

“Well, Ok Sir, I will give you a confirmation by evening.”

Well I haven’t turned around to look and think about joining that organization after that. The word still rings in my hand “Yaar, yahan sab zabaan pe chalta hai...” Hahahaa....

And you know what, whole 1.5 hours I sat there, the Jalebis he ordered never came. LOL...

 Looking forward to see what all Mumbai has instore for me and my chronicles.