Student discount...

Kaushal told me this story when we were working together in Durgapur...

He did his graduation in Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra in Bihar. Both of us had joined as Management Trainees in SAIL and were posted in Durgapur. We were working in the captive power plant of Durgapur Steel Plant and were very close.

Kaushal has this treasure trove of amusing stories and he has an awesome way of telling them. He will gradually build up the stories to a perfect climax. Most of the time you never know what hit you till he ends the story.

We were sitting by the pool side in Durgapur club one evening, relaxing, watching people swim in the pool and having a couple of beers. Kaushal launched into one of his stories.

'Ramu, did you have to struggle to get a job after graduation?', he asked me.
They had royally screwed my name, these North Indians. My parents, in their wisdom, kept it as Ramaswamy, and these guys had shortened it to Ramu.

(Of course, this is not the only way my name has been massacred and mutilated and transformed. For full details, read this story)

Those were the late 80s, the only jobs available were in Public Sector (Government) companies. Most of the PSUs (U stands for Undertakings) had their own recruitment process consisting of written test, group discussions (in certain cases) and interview.

The tests used to be held in different parts of the country and interviews used to be scheduled in the four metros, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai.
The entire recruitment process was very stressful and challenging. There were more engineers passing out of Engineering colleges than what the economy could handle.

I said yes. All of us struggled. Who can forget those days?

'Me and my friends from BIT had written this test for a PSU and few of us including me got called for the interview', Kaushal reminisced.

'Interview was to be held at Kolkata. We reached Howrah (Kolkata has two railway stations, one at Howrah and the other at Sealdah) the previous evening. Since this was our first visit to Kolkata, we asked a Taxi driver to take us to a hotel. After asking our budgets, which were very low, the cab driver took us to a shady hotel in Howrah.", Kaushal sipped his beer.

"We were all tense about the interview. So we had a quick dinner in the hotel itself. After dinner, all of us assembled in my room. There were four of us including me, Rajesh Pandey, Rajiv Ranjan and Ashish Kumar. It was about 8 PM and we were wondering about the kind of questions that could be asked in the interview", continued Kaushal.

"Among the four of us, Rajesh Pandey is a very simple soul. He prays daily, do not use any bad language and is respectful of everyone. When we were in hostel, we used to make fun of him and tell him that he should become street smart. He had always in him to prove his machismo", Kaushal was in his elements now.

I told him that there are one or two such fellows in all Engineering Colleges, who want to live up to the Engineering College traditions (there are always some exploits of seniors to look up to). But they do not have the courage to do any adventurous activities. But almost all of them has a secret life, much like Walter Mitty.

Kaushal told me he did not care for Walter Mitty. He told me not to interrupt his flow of thoughts.
"While we were chatting, the manager came and asked us if we wanted a girl (Prostitute)", Kaushal said.

"Rajiv and Ashish were very excited, I did not have any views. Rajesh was repulsed and excited at the same time. You could see the struggle in his mind", Kaushal sipped the beer.

"Rajiv asked for the rates. He told the manager that we are students and were on a tight budget. Manager told us that we can negotiate directly and went out and in about ten minutes, came back with a girl."

"She was casual and matter of fact. She started explaining the rates for various services"...(he told me the services, but this being a family blog, I can't mention them), Kaushal was in his elements.

"While she was telling us the rates, Rajesh was getting more and more excited, blushing as he heard the services being mentioned.", Kaushal was smiling to himself.

"The rates were high. As students, we could not afford her services", did I notice some wistfulness in his voice?

"She concluded. This is when Rajesh asked a question that embarrassed all of us. He was now so excited that he did not know what he was saying", Kaushal took a strategic pause.

"What did he ask?", I asked unable to hide my curiosity.

"He asked her for student discount"