Too many thorns... form a bed

7. Too many thorns… form a bed It was Hyderabad winter… Too cold for a Bengalurean. But colder was the response from recruiters for his resume. Kanishka had a tough time refining his resume, day after day and sometimes hour after hour. The crowd at the Atrium was huge as students from both campuses had gathered at the same place. “Dude, the resume should be of font size 12. Yours is 11. Why don’t you try Garamond? And you’re not using full-stops. There are hardly any achievements. Radio Club is of no use on a resume…”-Abhiram was more dejected than Kanishka himself, looking at the underprepared draft. “Do you know the reason?”-a voice at an adjoining table erupted after probably a heated argument. It was Chinmay’s as expected. “Do you know about ITC? Have you worked there? Wait… No… Hold on… Just answer me. Have you worked there?”-his chubby hand rose as did his feet, challenging the unfortunate debater-friend. “No? No, right? Now listen to me… I have read about them!” Kanishka could not help smiling. Abhiram seemed interested too. “You know the main issue there is?” “Their incentives are not aligned!”-the heavy hands moved like a railway wagon, a perfect example for alignment. “Heck! I don’t know when these over-used statements will come to an end.”-Abhiram turned towards Kanishka’s laptop screen on which Kanishka’s sentimental professional memoir laid bare open. “Your resume needs a hell lot of work. How many rejections so far?” “Ummm… More than ten!”-Kanishka wanted to save his… face… “That’s nothing! I’ve faced twenty-three!”-Abhiram beamed with pride. “I said… more than ten.”-Kanishka was calm. “I just added my case competition details. Whichever I won!”-Abhiram turned his screen towards Kanishka, not happy with the inequality that he missed. Those days of GMAT seemed better. “Wow! And the Comedy Club performances?” “I need to add them too. But extra-curriculars is not the main issue. The core resume! I have to decide on how my resume should look if I have to make that switch from manufacturing to education sector. Teach For India guys are an easy pick for the recruiters.” “Did you buy business formals?”-Abhiram suddenly looked up, fearing the cost of a suit that generally had a minimum price of ten thousand rupees. “No… I…” “WHAT DO YOU MEAN? THAT GOES AGAINST MY SELF-RESPECT!!!”-Chinmay’s voice broke the sanctimonious silence of the library. The lone spider near the dustbin wriggled in terror. The debate had turned bitter. Chinmay’s hand withdrew when he realized his mistake soon after about twenty pairs of eyeballs thrusted the fact into his cranium that was guarded by the armor of self-respect. The restored silence seemed more precious. For restoration only made things more valuable. “What self-respect is he talking about?”-Abhiram was irate with three vertically diverging wrinkles on his forehead that reminded Kanishka of Wolverine’s retractable claws. “Don’t know. But I know the difference between self-respect and ego.”-Kanishka gently placed a text box containing the place of work and date, at a right corner and checked its alignment. “That self-respect makes you mend your ways to avoid repeating the mistake and holding your head in shame. Ego looks for avenues to justify your mistake.”-Kanishka recalled what he had read on a wall inside a temple, during his childhood. “That’s why they say, ‘ego blinds’. It will not allow you to see that the action was a mistake.”-Abhiram’s claws retracted. “But some people feel entitled.”-this time it was Abhiram’s veins that surfaced as he clenched his fist to indicate a person’s behavior under entitlement. The venal network on his forearm resembled a bunch of unattended sewage pipelines dug open along the main roads to decorate the bird’s eye view of Bengaluru. “Entitlement is to be shown only for duties and responsibilities.”-Kanishka recalled another writing right next to the previous one, on the same wall. “Yo man. Don’t mind but I don’t want to listen to philosophy here.”-Abhiram wasn’t interested. “Haha… Just recalled something. Strangely, you mentioned only those things that I had read.”-Kanishka’s sight fell on his phone that flashed a message from an unknown sender. “Can you please send notes for all sessions starting from term 1?” “Oh! But why?”-Kanishka tilted the phone towards Abhiram, unable to understand. “I guess people are studying for the technical rounds, macha!”-Abhiram was shocked! “Macha?” “Lol! When you are panicked, your mother tongue automatically comes to your mind. All these fancy terms like bro, dude… they vanish at the very instant of anxiety.” “I don’t understand why you send notes and reduce your own chances. Although your notes are not that great…” “It’s just about helping others. Not a big thing anyway.”-Kanishka scratched his head. “But then what do you get in return?” “If I had to expect in return, it wouldn’t be help. It would be a deal.”-he pandiculated, tired of constantly editing the resume. “Dude, I’m heading to my studio for some time. Urgent work.”-Abhiram gave a sheepish grin. “What work? More important than resume?”-Kanishka was curious at the strange grin. “I need to take a dump.”-he turned his face away. “Why do you have to go home for that? The library has a restroom.” “Nothing like home when you want privacy… I’ll be back in twenty minutes.”-he rushed. Kanishka smiled to himself. “Sorry…”-he returned after a few seconds with a thud. “Forgot my keys.” Kanishka knew he had a long way to tread before he got placed. It was dizzying and punishing. Stamina, mental and physical, was the key to endure long hours of refining resume, writing a cover letter and getting a call for further rounds. Further rounds included the run-arounds wearing a black suit like his favorite caped superhero. “Now, that’s going to be tiring. Really tiring.”-he glanced out of the glass window of the study room to catch a glimpse of a gleaming Archan and glittering Reshma behind the glossy wood of the geeky furniture in the gargantuan library, cuddling affectionately. Kanishka could not help but recall that she was not seen around for more than a week. “Placement time… I understand…”-he danced his head around as he thought. As soon as he realized that he was responding in real, he looked out again if Archan and Reshma caught him act. “It would be so bizzare!”-he was more conscious than the couple a few yards away. “A relationship thrives with just the depth of the craving. Another member is not a necessity. Mine is stronger than theirs.”-he reddened. “Where are you?”-he closed his eyes tight. Slowly, circles and slender shapes formed across the red background of his closed eyes. He held on… The shapes started drifting away, making way for the most difficult canvas to draw a picture on. An image started to develop from behind the patterns that were moving away and away. Dense, long hair formed first, thicker on the right side that thatched a roof of silken strands. The features started to pop up delicately… The ears, partly looking through the hair that was futilely tucked behind them flaunted bell-shaped ear-rings. The nose peaked to the most optimum finesse that could not have been achieved even by the most sophisticated solver software ever created for optimization problems. The curvy bow of the upper lip met the arrow head of the lower lip that inverted and stretched like a boat meant to flow through the arteries to his heart. The void at the lower jaw was filled by gentle cheeks and a crescent chin. The most beautiful part of the face was yet to appear… He waited… The unfinished face started floating around. He pulled it back to the center. There was no further change. He still waited. It seemed to be a pointless pain… He was ready to go through… It remained still… So did he… And then! The eyes!!! The shores of her eyelashes began to fortify against the force of the breezy magic her eyes threatened to cast even on herself. The brows curved to slide Kanishka further into the depths of admiration. The picture was complete when her mesmerizingly blushing face stared at him without a blink. “There you are!” Kanishka thumped his fist as he remained rested on the elbow of his other hand. “You seem frustrated. Too much of resume?”- a light Abhiram brought out a serious issue. “Oh, shit! Resume…” Companies came, companies went and Kanishka remained without a company on the next chair, in the first round of recruitment. Abhiram had been recruited. The goings-on seemed to be too difficult. “Is this what some old Indian sentimental movies meant when their songs mentioned path full of thorns?” But what mattered the most for him was that, strangely, he could not see her even once during the rounds. “Where are you?”-he had even uttered it.