CASABLANKET

There are two positive things that happen when you finish college. You get a post graduate degree and work. A post graduate degree would help you gain contacts and some other valuables. You work because you have to, not because you want to. That’s the underlying reality of the cruel world we live in.
- Patrick.

There are two positive things that happen when you finish college. You either work or you opt for further studies. Well, you don’t opt for further studies, you are selected on the basis of vigorous interview and discussion sessions; but that’s another story so let’s just assume that you opt for further studies. As far as work goes, you work because you have to eat and survive. That’s the sadistic reality of the cruel world we live in.
- Terence.

There are two negative things that happen when you finish college. You want to study further yet you work. You work because that helps you come in contact with newer models of the other species. You work because you know, somewhere really deep within your heart, that there is an ‘Ugly Betty’ waiting for the transformation and wanting to get laid. That’s the pivotal reality of the cruel world we live in.
- Vincent.



June 2007:

College was over and done with, that’s what we thought. But we lived in the thought and continued whisking the summer drooling over TV shows and internet consumption. And then the phone rang:


Tillie-let Tillie-let, Tillie-let Tillie-let.

Terence – Hello?
Patrick – Hey, what’s up?
Terence – The usual.
Patrick – Wanna work?
Terence – Depends. Where?
Patrick – The company is called CVENT.
Terence – Cement!
Patrick – C VENT, asshole.
Terence – What do we have to do?
Patrick – Does it matter?
Terence – Of course, it’s about integrity.
Patrick - They pay us 18k.
Terence – I’m coming.
Patrick – Monica and Samantha would also join us.
Terence – Sure.
Patrick – Call Vincent too.
Terence – He must have known already. Telepathy.


Tillie-let Tillie-let, Tillie-let Tillie-let

Vincent – Yes?
Terence – I have a job for you.
Vincent – The only job I want is a blowjob.
Terence – Think decent, at times.
Vincent – Okay, handjob will do.
Terence – Opening at CVENT.
Vincent – Cement!
Terence – C VENT, asshole.
Vincent – What’s the job detail?
Terence – They pay us 20k.
Vincent – I will sell myself for that amount.
Terence – All right, I’ll see you when I see you.


Couple of days later. Terence and Vincent meet at the metro station, as they wait for Patrick, Monica and Samantha, they start a conversation-

Terence – Here’s your resume.
Vincent – You call this a resume!
Terence – No, I call it the periodic table.
Vincent – Jackass, Paris Hilton is not my ambition in life.
Terence – Shit. Just throw stuff when they ask you.
Vincent – What the fuck do I say?
Terence – Tell them you want to open new Hilton resort in Paris.
Vincent – You think the interviewers are dumb.
Terence – Well, they called us for an interview.
Vincent – Aha, now you make sense.

Meanwhile the two discuss things that shouldn’t be discussed. Patrick, Monica and Samantha arrive an hour later.

Patrick – Hello.
Vincent – You smell good, is that aqua marine?
Terence – It’s probably nicotine.
Patrick – You have your resumes, right?
Vincent and Terence – Right.
Patrick – Let’s go. It’s an hour from here.
Terence – Why couldn’t they come to us?
Vincent – Yeah, why do we have to go to them?
Patrick – You can’t have your cake and eat it too.
Terence – What good is a cake if you can’t eat it?
Vincent – Why should I eat someone else’s cake instead?
Patrick – It’s a proverb, a saying.
Vincent – Proverb saying what?
Patrick – Never mind. Can we go?


Meanwhile the two women were busy conversing with each other and therefore, they aren’t too vocal in this post. Anyway, the five of them hopped into the metro only to get down at some weird place to catch a local transport. A yellow DTC bus with fresh pukes, semi pisses, dry nose wastes, shining yeasts, solid saliva and probably hand ridden semen all over the seats.

Fret not and don’t make faces. They placed themselves far away from the ‘special’ seats and also took some pictures. Speaking of which, that’s where the ‘hand of god’ was conceived. An hour later, they got down from the public transport and that’s when the two women thought they’d rather visit a friend staying nearby than attend a boring interview session. So they left. Patrick, Terence and Vincent caught hold of another public transport and drove off in that beauty for about twenty minutes. The beauty referred to was a cycle rickshaw, which incidentally couldn’t race a van which carried nearly fifteen people. The fifteen people were also called for an interview and they stopped midway to ask for directions, since they were lost and confused like us. Now, there was a problem. No matter how absurd the situation, we don’t ask for directions. We simply don’t. Like Hannibal said,
‘We will either find a way or make a way’.

To our ego’s surprise, we arrived at the specified location at the specific time. Well, almost specific thanks to traffic. Atlantic ocean versus the pacific. Kindly ignore the last sentence. Upon entering the office, Terence realized his fly was open which meant it must have been open all the way through but that’s debatable. Meanwhile, Patrick asked Monica and Samantha to, at least, give the interview. Within all the meanwhiles, the conference room was populated by the fifteen people whom the three encountered on the way. A short introduction round was followed with a mini history class on CVENT clienteles, profiles and turnovers.

During the short orientation session, Vincent tried his best to make eye contact with a slender (slim + tender) female across his table; Vincent’s idea of eye contact was playing see-saw with his eye brows with his tongue wagging out. Patrick kept messaging Monica and Terence tried his level best not fall asleep. And suddenly, loud sounds of sharp stilettos could be heard which incidentally broke everyone’s already broken attention.

Monica and Samantha stormed into the room and explained that the traffic situation was overly pathetic and started cursing the government. The man in charge, the CEO, asked them to take their seat and Vincent suddenly popped this, “Where?”

While the CEO kept going on about the company, Monica and Samantha kept on with their unfinished conversation. The CEO requested them thrice to maintain decorum but don’t we all know that entertaining silence is something most women find hard to achieve. So, the CEO was pissed and asked them to leave. Monica and Samantha just rose and stormed out. They banged the glass door so hard that it remains stuck even today. Luckily, there were two doors. Once the orientation finished, we were taken to an aisle to test our writing skills combined with speed and comprehension. As we walked out of the room after the orientation, the CEO asked us if we were with the two ‘rude’ women. ‘No’ came the answer in chorus. Wicked eh.

We, then, sat on twin computers for the written test. Terence and Patrick took lots of time to complete the work whereas Vincent finished in a jiffy. Here’s the real deal- Vincent finished really early and didn’t know what to do with the free time so he fondled with his article and the fonts. He had each paragraph to a different font and colour which included pink, maroon, orange and red. Can you remotely imagine? A six or seven paragraph article with different colours and fonts, that too in an online written test. No wonder he was noted to be too colourful for the company.

Patrick and Terence breezed through the test and managed to impress at the final interview. The chief interviewer told us that there was an opening for only post and only candidate would get the final nod. But like they say, a squint and a pint never reply back. We never received any notification and still wonder who eventually got the job. By the time, we finished all the formalities; we realized that we were running late. The office was kind enough to provide us with transport to any place we desired. Vincent suggested we take the vehicle to Kasauli but Terence was too pissed since Vincent lost Terence’s zippo. Fuck, Vincent still owes Terence a zippo.

Upon much debate, they finally headed to Kotoky’s place to get some rest. On the way, Vincent sweet talked the driver to stop near a local liquor store where he got down and bought the valuables. After a while, a police van stopped the vehicle we were traveling in and at the spur of the moment decided not to check our belongings. As we wondered why, Vincent told us, “Relax. I have the police in my pockets”. Little did we know that he meant pants. Here’s the actual story-

Officer – Where are you boys going at this time?

Vincent gets out of the car and takes the officer to a corner. Then they speak.

Vincent – Please sir, we are students.
Officer – I can sense you are carrying alcohol.
Vincent – Can we please settle it?
Officer – Are you bribing me? Fucker (native language).
Vincent – No no, I’m only showing the love.

Officer takes a good look at him.

Officer – Fine. Come alone to my house tomorrow.
Vincent – (Gulps) But why sir?
Officer – What do you expect? For letting you three go.
Vincent – Okay, but I have a condition.
Officer – What? Protection?
Vincent – No, that’s your wish.
Officer – Then?
Vincent – Let me act cool in front of these two.
Officer – You will say that you threatened me?
Vincent – Yes. And that I have police in my pocket.
Officer – Okay but tomorrow at 10 pm sharp.
Vincent – (Gulps) Sshharp? Ok...kay.

The police van disappears after secretly taking Vincent’s phone number. Patrick and Terence were inside the car and only saw them talking. They were relieved to see the police van go away. That’s when Vincent arrogantly came towards the vehicle.

Vincent – I have the police in my pockets.
Patrick – That’s amazing.
Terence – Brilliant.
Vincent – Hail to the machine. Me.


Afterword:
"Accept that some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue."
- Scott Adams.