17th June 2008.
The second day at SIMS, morning came with a slew of alarms going on, and a sleepy me dragged myself to attend Prof. Kamath's Buisiness Excercise Class. I had been hearing a lot from my seniors about this particular lecture, and how it would be a once in a life time adventure.
They were absolutly right.
The excersise that was given to us was to reach the camp area of Pune, some 13 odd Km from the college, witout spending a single penny; but the real catch was after it. As they say the bes parts are for later, we were supposed to get a one day (11 to 5:30) Job, and try to earn atleast 150/- rupees. The task begun at 1000 hrs and me and my buddy for the task Ms. Shaan Vats, a very lively lady. We started the journey by asking for lifts from passing cars, and finally we managed t ohitch hike till Sarasbagh, and from there till Swargate and again hitchhicked till some circle, about 500 mts form MG road, and we finally arrived there at 11:40. From there started the Hunt for a job! Now the first few times we went into shops etc, there was a bit of inhibition, but very soon we perfected our "sales pitch" and got in the flow for asking for jobs, with the first being a computer showroom, where we tried to get a job based on our previous training as engineers, but we were offered no money there, only the experience so we were again on our way. Then we entred a variety of shops from apparel to footware, from furniture stores to household appliances. But luck would not have it that we get a job, so easily. The common excuse given by most of the showrooms was that the boss/manager is on vacation.
But we percivered, but with increasing disapointment with every passing hour and no luck we got a little deaperate and started asking banks, but by the time we hit apon the idea of resturents the lunch hour was clossing and they all promised a job tomorow. So on we went, one door to another, with the sun quickly erasing our smiles.
The desperation went to hights when we went to Dhabbas asking for jobs as a cook. Then we seriously started thinking about the possibilities, and we thought about hitting brokeage houses and trading companies for some data entry kind of a job, as it was already 2:00 pm.
Walking down east street, we went to the Kotak Securities office, and my oh my we chanced upon our super seniors there, and as well as our seniors working there for there summer projects. There, we were sitting in a small conference room , and talking with Mr. Harpreet Aneja trying to get some work, and just then my buddy decided to act a bit clumsy and ended up breaking the glass, she was offered water in. Well, we were fixed up with getting, and making entries in excel spreadsheets, as part of the clients protfolios there, and we sat for two ours working on excel , following the instructons given to us. Also i am grateful to our seniors who also explained briefly the work being carried out there amd what finamcial planning basically constitutes.
Well after we got the two hundred rupees for our work we headed back to the meeting place im SGS Mall's cafeteria, and collected, there. All the people had stories to tell, bloopers to report and be present at that mass eye opener.
It was so easy to get placed on campus in engineering, as compared to earning these 100 bucks, I have realised the importance of being capable of doing anything to survice, the importance of hard earned money, and mostly of eing Jugadu!
Ayush Patel
