Report about My first Visit to Kanpur on August 18,2008

I started off from Gandhinagar in the evening at 7.30PM on August 18, 2008, to catch the Sabarmati-Express Train, the scheduled departure of which was 8.50 PM. My wife had a missing feeling while mine was departing from her, to move on to Kanpur for attending an Interview for the post of Executive Engineer (Electrical) at IIT Kanpur, which was scheduled to be held on 20.08.2008. My son, yashraj, at that moment, was watching television with his friends. He took least interest in paying attention to me at the time I was leaving home for Kanpur.

As soon as I boarded on the train at 8.45 PM, my friend Mr. Bhatia Ji had called me on my cell-phone to confirm whether or not I reached the Ahmedabad Railway station safely. As there strong rumors were making rounds that some violence had erupted after a clash between two alien groups and was spreading rapidly in kalupur railway station area and it was very likely to declare this area as a tense and sensitive by the district administration.

My wife had, too, having some unknown fear after hearing this news and was stressed on thinking about my safety. Perhaps because of this, she had called me up on phone at least 3-4 times between the times I left home to the time I reached the Railway station. And every time she suggested me to be cautious while on way to Railway station. Amidst all the rumors and confusions, I finally occupied my berth timely and comfortably and informed accordingly to my both the well wishers, my wife and my friend.

But soon after as I tried to take my seat, I realized that a middle aged lady patient had been sitting in my berth and the man who accompanied her started requesting me to interchange the berth between Lower to middle. Mine had a lower berth and I was not willing to interchange. But I had to surrender after that man’s persistent requests and looking to the patient’s miserable condition. Although, later I felt cheated, as this so called patient after getting my berth, started exhibiting perfectly healthy symptoms and was frequently moving around to her seat and also inside the train compartment, and showing no sign of patient alike now. In fact she was perfectly normal and healthy; she had done all this just to create a ground to convince me so that she could interchange her berth with mine simply for more her travel comfort and convenience.

Now the most interesting fact about this interview was that right from early in the morning till just last 15 minutes before my departure from home to Kanpur, I felt no serious interest in attending the interview. I couldn’t even know as to why such weird thoughts had crept in my mind. I was trying to identify the true reasons for such awkward feelings at the last moment.

It took me a while to figure out exact causes; however, somehow I managed to discover that following could be the chief reasons for my distractions and non-interest for this interview.

1. The fear of unknown and the great demand of intellectual rigors from the Interviewers.
2. A fear of not able to get as much positive and conductive environment, if selected, as I’m currently enjoying being in present organization.
3. Not foreseeing a substantial gain in terms of money.
4. The fear of shifting location with family from Ahmedabad.
5. A fear of losing the competitive environment so far enjoyed being in Ahmedabad.
6. The Distance & Time factor- A fear of losing precious time and money in a complete uncertain situation after encountering a bad experience recently during an interview at IIM Ahmedabad.
7. A feeling of sheer disturbance in currently being pursued target-the writing.
8. A feeling of highly entangled and trapped in the current mesh of developed odd situations.
9. A fear of losing a decent Air-conditioned office equipped with 24 hours Internet facilities, STD phone and official mobile phone.
10. The fear of leaving family alone for 04 days and losing credibility in the eyes of management.

Despite all this in back of mind, I had been strongly waiting for a solid point to pop-up in mind till reaching to the Kanpur to finally become positive to the extent that I could attend the interview seriously.

After a while, the following points as given below had suddenly been popped up in my mind to cheer up to some extent, if selected.

1. Proximity to the Home Town and more time for parents and relatives.
2. Enhanced status due to impressive and better designation being in a secured Govt. job.
3. Good and affordable child’s education.
4. Family will get opportunity to mix with local home culture, thereby less family stress.
5. Job security.
6. The flexible working environment.
7. Class-1 Group-A post.
8. Availability of management books library to pursue research writing work.
9. Availability of stress-free campus accommodation.
10. Able to renovate the ancestral house at home town.