This was a submission to Sunday Times, Soul Curry.
She continues to bless me!
2002 was the final year of my management course at Symbiosis Pune. The year had particularly decided to test my strength. The never ending placement season began with a slow, disappointing note. There were a sequel of interviews taken by me, where I reached the last stage of selection post group discussions and initial interviews, but the final result did not go in my favour. My confidence was shattering and it hurt to see myself lagging behind. My classmates had begun to doubt my capability to become a management professional. There were others as well in the class who were going through this psychological hell. There was this one classmate (girl), who could not manage clearing the group discussions. The rejections were taking a toll on her.
We both were short listed for the group discussion for a well known Non Banking Financial Company ‘A’. Since the G.D was held combined for quite a few management Institutes, the prowess in breaking through others and expressing ones views, made all the difference. I definitely managed to pitch in between the war of words but my classmate struggled to voice an opinion. Something occurred to me and I took her name and asked her stance. Post this she took charge and both of us sequentially reached the final round of Interview. The choice had to be made between one of us and as destiny had it, she cleared it. She received the pat for getting into a top NBFC and I had to compromise and join an export house in Bangalore. It was a family run business, where I reported into the Chairman, a man in his late 70s and someone endowed with a very foul temper. Since I had a meager salary, I stayed in a paying guest accommodation. Though I was taken in as a management trainee, my task involved arranging the files in ascending order and receiving guests with flowers. To add fuel to my frustration, the classmate who had joined company ‘A’ quit within two months because she was getting married, and here was I struggling to make a career. My disillusionment reached its zenith.
The owner of the paying guest house was a devotee of Goddess Kanaka Durga. She recommended that I should begin worshipping her. Something within me did not want to mistrust the lady’s belief in the Goddess and I silently commenced praying to the Goddess Kanaka Durga. For the next 4 months there was no respite and then my friend Saugata Basu sent my CV to the same company ‘A’. This time I cleared, and was given a higher position than what my classmate acquired 5 months back but the posting was in a hard core Telugu speaking city- Vijaywada in Andra Pradesh, an upcountry location. I being a single north Indian girl was literally in tears to be in an alien environment and initiated the search for a new job as soon as I joined Vijaywada. Within a week my disillusionment got an answer. The office colleague informed me that the city was famous for Goddess Kanaka Durga Temple and that if she had called me that far, she would take care. I stayed back in Vijaywada for a year, and true to the faith I have in the Goddess, my career moves have been enviable since then and there hasn’t been an interview I haven’t cleared post that. She continues to bless me.
