How am I where I am now?

Me : ma, andha socks enga?
Mom : anga dhan da vechen, irukum paruda
Me : ma, indha shoe kulla irundhu karapanpoochi laam oduthu
Mom : shoe na use pannanum, kuppa mari pottu vecha apadithan

And yeah!! It was 7:00 AM in the morning of 11th Aug 2010, it was the day, it all started, the tension, the fear, the excitement, and what not. Amazon was the first company that was visiting our campus for the year. Having all the weirdest of imaginations that all would have, the previous day I was not even able to prepare something due the excitement I had. Having hope in heart that I would somehow manage to get a good job, I had put up this status on facebook that read Hope dream jobs are not really ‘dream’ jobs.

<!-- One Week Ago –>
As I would do on a usual weekend, I was playing FIFA on my pc and and my dad just entered the room....
Dad : ennada pannitu iruka, eppapathalum velayattu dhaana?
Me : solla maranduten, adutha vaarathula irundhu placements aarambikudhu, modalla amazon, apram microsoft, apram ebay, etc etc
Dad : exam ku dhan padikala, idukachu padikalaam la
Me : adellam pathukalam pa
Dad : ennamo panni thola, unnayellam thiruthave mudiyadhu

<!—Back to Placements Day One –>
After clearing the cockroaches, mud and all from my old shoes and polishing it to some extent, I wore it and was about to start to college to attend my first ever test for placements. My mom came with me and on the way to the bus stand took me to the temple and I had 3-4 colours on my forehead.
Mom : A/C bus la venumna po da
Me : kasu?
Mom : indha vechiko

<!-- One Week Ago –>
Mom : enna idhu daily a/c bus la laam pora... inga enna kasu kottiya vechirukku?
Me : :S :S

<!—Back—>
Okay! dressed up like a professional(inda vaarthaya ketu sirikadheenga) I took the a/c bus as planned, but I din get a seat. I reached college on time and all my friends waiting in their ultra-formals with new full-hand shirts, proper pants, and neatly polished shoes, and also people from mit had turned up as the placements for ceg and mit happen together.

<!—My first written test—>
I was sitting in the hall, and looking at the question paper, hundreds of people around me, looking in to their faces, all of them excited, smiling, and there were numerous thoughts running in my mind(Yessss, I’m writing AMAZON interview questions, its gonna be one hell of a life @ amazon if at all we get placed. A good package, good company, and the most important it is in our own Singara Chennai). And suddenly I realized that half-an-hour of time getting wasted with these dreams-of-life, as I walked out of the hall after the test got over, I was damn damn sure that I wont get selected for the interviews, and I did’nt.

<!—Night @ home—>
Dad : amazon ennachu?
Me : nasama pochu olunga pannala
Dad : ennada ivlo easya solra, konjam kuda poruppe illa
Me : naane kavala padala unakennappa
Dad : ipdi oru nalla vaaippa thavara vittuttu adha jollya eduthukura
Me : aama pa, nalaiku eBay iruku, padikren(and then browsing thru all the windows in the desktop, after all, an act of studying)
Dad : ennamo panni thola, nalaikachu therudhanu pakalam

<!—eBay written over—>
The questions were a bit easy this time, and I had definite hope of atleast getting shortlisted for the next round. Eagerly waited for the list to be published and seriously was shocked to find my name missing in the list. And I went home with a sad face.

Called up dad to tell him what happened today.
<—phone rings-->
Dad : Hello!
Me : Hello
Dad : ennada ennachu eBay?
Me : adhuvum pochu, naan nalla dhan pa pannen aana.....
<—dad cuts the call—>
Mind voice : idukke tension aana eppadi... innum evalavo irukkey

<—phone rings – one hour later—>
Dad : ennapa thambi panitu iruke
Me : chumma dhan pa iruken
Dad : yen pa, poi edhana game velayadradhaaney!!
<—sema kalaai, i enjoyed it more than feeling guilty or something :P – >

<!—Cisco Interviews – two days later—>
I had got shortlisted for the cisco interview, two days after eBay, and I told my parents and they were really happy regarding that.
<--After some general inroductions and stuff—>
(Int)erviewer : Okay, you have taken unix internals as your elective, tell me about unix
Me : unix is open source, and its powerful..
Int : powerful? how do u say that?
Me : err!! hmm!! ?? :S thats how they thought me!! (first attack)
after a few rounds of questions were over
Int : why do you prefer a job over a masters?
Me : uhh!! thats because I tried to study for gre, but 4000 words, manushan padipaana??? so job only (second attack)
Int : Ok, Best of luck, your interview is over
And some of my friends who had already written gre got placed, but I did'nt. There were no negative reactions from home as I atleast went till the interview.

<!—Global Scholar – next day-->
Global Scholar was the toughest of all interviews I have attended till now, yet interesting. The interviewer even offered me some mixture to eat during the interview. But, finally idhuvum naasama dhan pochu...
Went home and reshared mama's dialog in google buzz marubadiyum mudalla irundha?
Dad : iduvum illaya, vera yaru placed
Me : Vijay pa
Dad : hmm... nethu venkat, iniku vijay, un friends a oruthoruthana place aaki vitutu vanditu iruka..

<!—Deloitte – 2 days later—>
About 700 people wrote the tests, and I were one of them. Around 100 got shortlisted for a group discussion kind-of next round
Naasama pochu, I was not even amongst that 100 out of 700..... Naan enna avlo mosamaava poiten…

<!—Chronus – a week later—>
Same old stories, as that of eBay, I found no wrong in the written test that I had taken, and I really dint know why I was not shortlisted, maybe I (was/am) destined for something else :P
Dad : ennada idhu, atleast interview attend panna kuda paravala, written eh clear panna matendra...
Me : vidu pa pathukalam..... :S :x X-( ….<--vendha punnula vela paichikitu-->

<!—Oru Maadhathirku Piragu(A month later)—>
College notice board reads Microsoft on Sep 20 and Google on Sep 22
Things running through my mind, will it be worth the wait? will i clear atleast one of them? and that too with a bunch of people already getting placed in the previous bunch of good companies, that has reduced the competition, I was hoping for something to happen that week.
We had a written test on Sep 19, that I did properly and the ppt was on Sep 20 as planned, I have been shortlisted for the interviews, and yeah started to put all the buttons of the shirt, including the wrist buttons, and waited outside the cuic where interviews happen. It happened from morning 10:00AM to night 8:00PM for me.
first round - was an easy question same for all folks
second round - went well and the interviewer seemed impressed
third round - they were logical questions, they asked me to test a Reynolds 045 India pen and it was good :P
fourth round - more of a stress kind-of round with Perry, and as the interviews got over, I asked him when will they publish the results, and his reply was “You dont even know to write code for linked lists. do you think we will hire you??”
Marubadiyum mudalla irundhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

<!—One day later—>
The people who came from the company had already left the campus, and when asked for results they had told they'll send a mail later. Sep 22 evening there was a new notice in the notice board, that was a print out of the mail, that Microsoft has sent to my college, regarding the list of people who got selected. After all those jumping, hugging, running and stuff for a few mins……

<—calling………dad’s phone rings—>
Dad : Hello!!
Me : ipo naan game velayadalaama pa? :P :P :P