Oh Those Ten! - 7

Placed da!

This moment may have happened in the final semester but the seeds for these emotions were sown as early as fifth semester itself.My department has been consistently gifted with an extraordinary set of Placement Representatives year after year.(PR is the toughest post a student can handle in PSG Tech.Even the most efficient of Students Union Chairmen can find the PR work tougher).

Samani and DJ were my senior PRs.It seemed as if the entire batch studied for those two alone.They maintained Study Hours rigorously (In those two hours from 8:30 PM to 10:30 PM,one cannot talk cricket.cannot watch movies.cannot call up girl friends.)I remember my senior Balaji closing a random Ajith video song that was being played.When I asked him whether the reason was Ajith's indigestible dance,he replied back "Samani solitan da.Vera vazhi ila".

With such pedigree,they naturally expected us juniors to choose equally good PRs.As it happened,I was chosen one of the PRs keeping my Chairman dreams in check.Our class guys were tough to handle and I started regretting my decision immediately.Those nights at Samani's room never seemed to end.Samani always knew how to start a conversation but the end of it he could never see.Once we were seeing "Vettaikaran" in a senior's room and Samani told me (Earnest.Sincere) "See how Police Ravi is.A PR should be like him."

DJ was even more eccentric.Once he scolded me for fifteen minutes just because I told that a test can be conducted on October 2 (That it was a national holiday was a trivial detail I had overlooked).Inspite of all these Samanisms (and Dj-isms),they cared for our progress every moment enquiring about our study hours regularly.Me,Sundar,Ashok,Shiv Kumar and Vivek (Five PRs) started enjoying the work and pressure after the initial discomfort.

In the fifth semester holidays,I had to back out of the PR job due to unexpected pressure from a person I knew even before 13.1.1991-My Amma.Thus,a remarkable passage of time wherein I had to literally plead some guys to stop watching movies and get back to Deep C ended prematurely.There after,I got caught up in my own world of Student Union activities while the rest of the class raced to the Placement Finish Line every day or the other.

While there was utter joy to be shared at the news of every friend getting placed,I had a personal regret that I could not contribute anything getting myself consumed in all the Spirit getting Unleashed.When more than 60 students got placed in TCS, my biggest contribution was sending a group SMS wishing all.But then,what was supposed to have been cruel fate for Nagarajan and Navaneetha Krishnan ("TCS laye place aagala da!Enna panradhu?".I hate these words.Placements in PSG Tech have turned a massive service provider into a minnow) became the window of opportunity for me.

I spent the remaining one month helping both of them in Spoken English.I started from basic Wren and Martin lessons and moved on to full-length English speaking sessions wherein we walked all the way to mess talking inanities about the taste of Romali Roti.When IBM and Wipro rejected them one more time and Nagarajan was sleeping alone in bed listening to songs with a hint of tear in eyes,I did not console him at all.We added pace and depth to the English classes from then on with GDs in various topics.

After all the Thorns,when both of them got their Roses in Bosch and came back from Placement Cell,there was jubilation in the hostel.I waited for Nagarajan to speak to his Amma (That feeling which an Amma can get when her son gets placed is something I am yet to know/give).When he came to me and told happily "unnala dhan ellame",I could not mouth back a reply.

I had been an "One-Sem" PR a year back alright but on that night,I suddenly felt like an "One-Day" PR.And being an "One-Day" PR was more satisfying than being an "One-year" chairman.Future may put me in the gutters but on that night,I was dancing with the stars.