22 Aug 2007
Tomorrow I meet Mr Narayan Murthy for an interview on entrepreneurship.
So far, it has been quite an eventful journey from Pune to Bangalore. It started last night.
Rahul and I took the last bus to the city from college at 9.00 pm. The Coimbatore Express would arrive at 2:00 am. To kill the spare time we had, we left our bags in the custody of the Atur Center Security guards and headed off to E-Square (the multiplex). We were already late for the start of “28 weeks later”. About 20 minutes late, but we still would kill time.
The movie turned out to be quite a letdown. There were the usual scenes of the masses getting infected with a deadly virus and the infected running around biting other people.
We left the theatre at about 11:30, picked up our bags and headed to the station. At the station I pulled out the last book of Harry Potter (thanks to Amrita for the book) and read away. Rahul was reading an interview of Dr Prannoy Roy with Mr Murthy on my E50 Nokia phone. Then I got a call from The-One-Who-Should-Not-Be-Named and we spoke for about an hour. We spoke about new business plans and new beginnings in professional life.
At 1:45 the train rolled onto platform 3. We got our waiting-list tickets confirmed in coach S6. As Rahul and I walked…. S11, S10, S9… oh goodness, a huge crowd of Pune college girls in S8… and in S7!… none in S6. Rahul and I looked at each other… better luck next time.
We found our seats and hit the pillow immediately. The 6 other seats in our coupe were empty.
At around 3 in the morning I woke to sounds of arguments… ahh.. some girl is disagreeing with the TC. In the morning I woke to find all the berths around us occupied. Wait a minute… why do all the figures under all the blankets look so slender? Odd. Then a blanket came off a bit and a girl looked around and went back to sleep. Oh great! We have 6 Pune girls sitting around us! Weee.. this is the first time I’ve got so lucky.
When I had to brush my teeth, I found out that the number lock in by briefcase was stuck. Drat. No amount of prying made it open. Damn good lock.
Hours later, after a few games of Bluff (the card game, silly) and bits of snacks they had brought along (they had a full bag of it) I was bored. They were good fun, but no intellectually stimulating conversation. Dhara, Pooja, Gauri, Sneha, Pokie (that’s her nick name) and one more, who I do not remember. Rahul could tag along better than I. I pulled out the Potter book.
We arrived at Bangalore after the 20 hour journey at 10:15 pm. Hungry, we stopped to get some roties and dal, which took a good 40 minutes. At the restaurant, we bumped into a bunch of Belgian lady tourists who thought that Rahul was almost an exact replica of their friend in Belgium. He stood while they snapped his photo for to take home. How weird can life get?
There were no more city busses at 11:15. We opted for a prepaid auto. Worse, my cell phone was totally discharged. Maneesh had given me instructions to reach his place, that seemed to be enough. 30 minutes later, after dropping off Rahul I reached the vicinity of Maneesh’s place.There was no electricity. Pitch dark. No phone booth around. My cell phone was dead. Nuts, how bad can things get. After a few rounds around the place, we found a one-rupee-coin phone. Good.
Nuts, I did not have a rupee on me. I looked at the Auto-rickshaw driver who promptly handed me a rupee. When I put the rupee into the telephone and dialed the number, it said “45 seconds remaining”. Maneesh… quick tell me where to come…!
15 minutes later, Maneesh picked me up and an hour later (after breaking open my permanently locked briefcase) I was fast asleep promising myself I would get up early to prepare the questions for the interview. I realized next morning I woke late by three hours.
23 Aug 2007
Today has been yet another red-letter day. Today I met Mr. Narayan Murthy in person, in his office and interviewed him on “entrepreneurship”.
A little background: three weeks ago, Rahul Rajagopalan, a freshman, obtained a time slot to meet Mr Murthy. Every SCMHRD-ian has to interview one CXO and one entrepreneur before they join. Being in Infy before joining SCMHRD, Rahul naturally tried to get an appointment with his Chief Mentor. Circumstance had it that Mr Murthy was out of the country. But Rahul was smart and did not let go of the contact he had with Mr Pandu, Mr Murthy’s PA.
In the first week of August, Rahul got a time slot to meet Mr Murthy – 23rd Aug, 2:00 pm, for 25 minutes. When he went to Subbu with his information, Subbu wanted him to interview Mr Murthy from the point of view of an entrepreneur. So, chance had it that Rahul decided to ask me to accompany him for the “entrepreneur” angle. I am so thankful to him for the offer.
With a late start to the day, I finished a quick breakfast with Maneesh before parting with the friend who has always been there when I needed help. Rushing over to Rahul’s place, I contemplated the questions to ask Mr Murthy. By mind was the same as it was three weeks ago – numb, blank, with no idea what questions to ask him.
After two hours of ruminating over the set of questions we had, and creating a 7 slide ppt on the eCell we headed off to Electronic City.
I had no idea of the size of the Infy campus in Bangalore. All I know is the security guard at the entrance both did his job well and was one of the most courteous people I’ve met. We waited for Mr Pandu to finish his meeting, since we needed to wait for him to ok our entry into Mr Murthy’s room. We walked into Mr Murthy’s room at 2:15 after greeting the jolly Mr Pandu.
Mr Murthy gave us a whole 20 minutes of time. We went through our lineup of questions and he diligently answered all of them. After the 20 minutes (it seemed much shorter than that) were over, he ended it with a clap and a smile, “Wonderful” he said. That brought a smile to my face, … one of those smiles which come out of pure joy, one that cannot be suppressed. After a couple of photos for the album (ours, that is) he commented on the innovation that is the digital camera. Man, what an observant individual.
We left his office, still on a high and headed for the food courts. After two kati rolls and a Kapi Nirvana at the stalls in the campus, I headed toward the bus station, almost on the other side of the city. Got to the KSRTC (Govt bus) on time.
Watched Chak De India in the bus.
Later called up Rathi and Vetri to find out what happened during the day. Then I found out about the developments related to the Innovation workshop.
And now, I’m faced with a cross-road. In order to attend this interview, I had to forego one day in a workshop on innovation. This workshop is conducted by someone connected with Marico, and according to Subbu’s decree, if anyone misses one day of the workshop, they do not sit for the Marico placements. Knowing this fully well, I made my choice. And what’s more, Amrita Sunder is filling in for me at the workshop. Now, what repercussions does this decision have on the rest of my life is left to be seen. Chance had it that Rahul asked me to accompany him. Chance had it that the innovation workshop was scheduled on the day I had to interview Mr Murthy. Chance had it that Amrita wanted to sit for the workshop. The co-incidences are too many. Is this one of those decisions that change the whole course of your life? I certainly believe so. Time will prove if I am right.
24 Aug 2007
The story was not complete. My innovation workshop started out at 9 am. The bus arrived at the other end of Pune at 9:00 am. Took an auto and rushed to college. Bangalore to Pune, bus fare: Rs. 813. One end of Pune to the other, auto fare: Rs. 600. It was then that I realized I had not paid Maneesh for the bus ticket. Had I taken a private bus, they would have dropped me at an area near by my college. But I was in a Govt bus, “No sir, you have to get down here. We will not drop you anywhere else”.
Rushed from the auto-rickshaw to class in the same white short and grey pants I wore for Mr Murthy’s interview. If it was not for Rathi seeing me and warning me not to come in, I would have barged an entry. So I waited for the break and then spoke to the trainer and then got in. He even used my interview video for a discussion on personal assumptions and biases that show up when we ask our questions. I was not part of the class. And Subbu does not know of it yet….
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