Five Point Someone Read online

  Alok went for twenty minutes. It was my turn as soon as he came out.

  A thirty-year-old man welcomed me into the interview room.

  “Hi, I am Kamal Desai. You are Hari, right?” he said.

  “Yes sir,” I said.

  “Sit down, sit down. And don’t sir me, call me Kamal.”

  I sat down quietly. Kamal browsed through my files and then stopped at the grade sheet.

  “Hmmm…5.48 overall, what happened?” He looked into my eyes.

  It was right at this moment when I should have had my panic attack. But I didn’t this time. I don’t know why, but ever since I saw Ryan’s plan fail, Alok jump and Cherian cry, the whole wide world didn’t intimidate me anymore.

  “I screwed up my first semester, sir…I mean Kamal. And it is really hard to come back in IIT if you miss the first time.”

  “That is very interesting. What happened in the first sem?” Kamal said

  “Don’t know. Felt like enjoying college life a bit. I guess IIT is not that type of college,” I said.

  “Yes, IITs are truly different. Tell me, do you like IIT?” Kamal said.

  It was a loaded question. A question no one had asked me before. I had thought I’d be quick to say how I hated every living moment of it, but couldn’t. I remembered my first day – the day Ryan saved me from Baku and his coke bottles. Four years, and soon it would be time to leave this place. Did I like it here?

  “I don’t know. There are things I’d rather forget. But I met my best friends here, and hopefully this place will get me a job,” I said.

  Kamal laughed. I could see him as one of the students ten years ago. I wondered what his GPA had been in his time. That is the thing about IIT, you see people and you wonder what their GPA was. You kind of need that to judge them. Sad.

  Kamal asked me a few more questions about why I wanted to join the software sector. Hell, I’d kiss any sector that would give me a job. And this was my one chance.

  “It was very interesting talking to you. That’s all for now,” Kamal said as he escorted me out of the room.

  “Interesting talking to you” – I repeated the phrase three times in my head. What was that supposed to mean? Just a polite way of saying I was weird and stood no chance? Or did my pathetic resume file really charm him?

  We waited another hour for the results. And that is when I realized that for once my luck might have turned for the better.

  “Hari, you and I have made it! You got an offer in Bombay and I got Delhi,” Alok said and tugged at my shirt.

  I became numb and couldn’t answer him for the next five minutes. A crowd of students almost crushed me in their rush to the notice board. I was lost in my thoughts. Just a few days ago, I was planning to spend an extra year to complete five credits and collect a tainted grade sheet. Now I had a way out. And I had a job.

  “I didn’t get it,” Ryan said.

  “What?”

  That had to be a mistake. How could Alok and I get a job while Ryan not?

  “What happened?” I said.

  “I don’t know. Fuck man, fuck-fuck-fuck,” Ryan said as he walked away from us.

  “Where is he going?” Alok said.

  “I don’t know,” I said.

  For a couple of moments I forgot my own job. Ryan had not got a job? He was the creative, confident, smart one. He was what I always wanted to be. So he had almost the lowest grade in the insti, but this is Ryan, hello?

  “We got a job, Hari. Six grand a month,” Alok said.

  “Huh? Oh, yeah,” I said, suspending my concern for Ryan for a while. “So, we’re not just five-point somethings anymore, we are five point somebodies.”

  Alok spoke to his parents on the phone for two hours that night. I think he read out the whole offer letter to them. His mother noted down the entire package – basic salary, travel allowance and of course, the much needed medical benefits. Alok was thrilled.

  I was still kind of numb. When good things happen to you, you kind of feel there is something odd. Like this could be a dream. That Kamal Desai of Technosoft will call me and say it was all a bad joke. And then again, the job was in Bombay.

  “What is with you? You don’t seem so excited,” Alok said as he got out of the phone booth.

  “I am. I am. But it is in Bombay. What about Neha?” I said.

  “What about her? You’ll still continue after IIT?” Alok asked naively, as if she had been part of my curriculum here.

  “Why not?” I said, placing my fingers in the booth’s grill.

  Alok shrugged his shoulders. It was pointless talking to him. He would have rather discussed the dental benefits that the job gave us.

  “Where is Ryan?” I said.

  “I think he went to the lab. He said he wanted to talk to Prof Veera,” I said.

  “I hope he finds something. I think that is the other reason why I can’t be so fully excited,” I said.

  “It’s hard for him. He is only 5.01, and the last in class. It is difficult for him to get placed,” Alok said.

  “But he is so smart. I mean, the lube project is basically all his,” I said.

  “GPAs matter,” Alok said and walked away.

  Ryan did not get a job for another month. Our semester sped by really fast, especially since we were so busy trying to meet our deadlines. Ryan kept applying to companies, but he only got two more interviews. The last guy in the class always found it hardest to get a job. For that matter, if Kamal Desai was not into honesty appreciation that day, I might have been in Ryan’s situation.

  “You guys can’t lose heart. Ryan, you must keep trying,” Prof Veera exhorted as we stood in the lab.

  Ryan’s scooter engine was running at full blast. Today’s mixture had an unusually bad smell, stinking up the whole lab. I kind of wished this was not the optimal mix for our final lubricant.

  “I can’t Prof Veera. It is not going to work,” Ryan said, looking at the exhaust fumes coming out of the engine.

  “Of course, it will. But I do feel you are made for better things than a run-of-the mill software job,” Prof Veera said.

  “What do you mean?” Ryan said.

  “I mean you should work in research. What is in a software job? You are contract labour at cheap prices for foreigners. Ryan, you really think you will be happy there?”

  “I would be,” Alok said.

  “I am asking Ryan. You guys are friends, but you all could want different things you know,” Prof Veera said.

  “Like what? What else can I do?” Ryan said.

  “Would you like to work as my RA?” Prof Veera said. “Research Assistant. I can get you a two-year contract. Will not pay a lot, say two thousand a month. But you live on campus, and you can continue research on lubricants.”

  I saw Ryan’s face. The Rs 2000-number was writ large on his face; a third of what our jobs would pay us. Would Ryan be able to accept that?

  “It is an idea,” he said eventually.

  “It is a great idea. And if we find an investor who is willing to commercialize your product, who knows how successful you can be,” Prof Veera said.

  Ryan looked at me. Somehow, I felt he wanted me to make a decision for him. I thought about it less than I should have, but gave my answer.

  “I think you will be happy doing this, Ryan. And I am sure you will find an investor for it one day,” I said.

  “I project the market for this product at atleast ten crore. You’ll get a royalty of, I don’t know, say ten percent. Of course, if we find someone who invests in the factory first,” Prof Veera said.

  “I’ll do it,” Ryan smiled, “I am your RA, sir.”

  “Yes!” I said and hi-fived him.

  “I guess all of us are officially employed,” Alok said, “can we party now?”

  “Of course, you should. But go easy on the vodka,” Prof Veera said but he was grinning.

  27

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  Five Point Someone

  IT WAS THE CONVOCATION DAY,