I stood there watching the rain; it rains all the time in July. The queue didn’t appear to be moving. The hall of our training building was huge though to accommodate such queues.  It was my first job, I was really happy when I got it but I somehow feel sorry to work anyway. Happens. Why can’t we go on studying and why can’t we get paid for studying? Of course I didn’t want to study engineering anymore but how nice it would be to study what you want and not what is supposed to fetch you a potential job, or something your father wanted to study but couldn’t.  Life isn’t that easy you know. They say each day is a gift. I say each day is a struggle to meet the ends. Only few people are lucky to be posh. Everyone wants to be them, but then, everyone needs to understand that most of them were like us before they became what they are now.

I then heard an excuse me and it broke the stream of my thoughts. I saw the queue had moved a little forward and I paced ahead to join it. Few feet away from me was a huge television flashing “ABN Technology welcomes you to the Training Program at Kaveri Park, Kolkata, 2007 batch”.  Well I was at least lucky to get the training close to my hometown, Bhubaneswar. Maybe I can sneak away on the weekends. It was supposed to be a two months rigorous training before you actually start working at the corporate. They claimed it would be a transformation from campus to corporate.

 I finally reached the registration desk. There was a smart looking lady with horn rimmed spectacles and a sharp nose, sitting behind the computer.

“Name please?” the lady asked with no trace of smile on her face.

“Nita Sasmal”, I said loud and clear trying to be smart like her.

“College?”

I would have said “some college”. How does it matter after all! That is something I left behind college, friends, parents, and a life.

“College please?” the lady almost barked this time and I blabbered out my college name.

“Well that college is not in the existing list”, said the lady scrolling though the computer screen, “so as of now I am putting it as ‘others’ ”.

I thought that was okay, many people don’t even know where Bhubaneswar is, so how does it matter if the college column says ‘others’ in the form.

“Please stand in front of the webcam for the photo”

I was plain not pretty, and my spectacles were old fashioned not like the lady’s. But I somehow wished my photo to look better than me. However this time also it failed to impress me, pasted on top of my welcome kit. Ah it is going to be a long day! I sighed.

It was already 11:30 am, the registration had taken two odd hours and the induction was about to start in another thirty minutes. I better hurry I thought but on my way to the auditorium I paused a bit and looked around. The building was tall and huge; people had come from across the country to join the company. Some of the girls were very well groomed and yes there were handsome guys too, who didn’t quite seem to notice me. I was among the few you could say from a small town. Though I was thin, my Indian wear, a pink salwar kameez, was a little oversized. Mom always had an argument, “I am not going to get it stitched tight”, she would say, “What if you grow fat, that will just be a waste of money”. 

I stood there in the lawn wondering, will I be able to make it? Can I ever fit in? Just then it began to drizzle again; I saw a grasshopper skilfully moving on the lawn, there were flowers too, and a butterfly was resting there swaying its wings. Reminded me of what Stephen Hawking had said, “Where there is life, there is hope”.  Well, time to get inducted.