The Last Day...

Yesterday was my last working day in my third company. While coming back from office, I remembered my last working day during my training days in Trivandrum. It brought back lot of memories. I joined TCS as a fresher and was put up for training in its Technopark branch, Trivandrum. The training was for about 2 and half months. In the first few days, I had a hard time adjusting to the new place, office environment, and the military discipline followed there. We were given accomodation in hotels in the city and we commuted by company arranged cabs to and from office.

On the second day afternoon, during lunch time, I thought of making a phone call. In those days only a very few had mobile phones, and I didn't have any. So, I have to go out to the phone booth and make calls. I asked the main gate security about the nearest phone booth. He told me where it is and also told me that if I go out, then after making the phone call, I can take my luggage and go to my native straight. In short he was telling that if I dared to go out, then I will not be permitted inside again forever. As a fresher I got scared and went inside and I never dared to go out again & I never spoke to that security again. It was a strict military rule there.

Later I got to know that most of the companies treat freshers more or less in the same way. They keep threatening the freshers, as freshers are the only people who can be threatened. And the situation will be worse if the freshers have a bond with the company. We were split into different batches. Most in our batch became close to each other. We had lots of fun.

The last day arrived. On that day we had to complete a lot of formalities like some documents submission, signing in some documents and similar activities. One particular girl in my batch was intentionally coming to me again and again and was asking lot of questions about me and my family. She kept on asking irrelevant questions till the end of the day.

Towards the evening a sort of senti-mood was spreading among my batchmates. Around 5:30 in the evening, I dont know who started it, but suddenly I could see three girls crying. Along with them 2 guys also started crying. Then slowly one by one, almost everyone in our batch started crying. But I didnt. I had no reason to cry. Infact I was eagerly waiting to return back to my native or to Chennai as soon as possible. I didnt want to see the crying faces. I didnt want to remember those faces with tears as my batchmates. So, I immediately returned to my room, took all my lugguages, and started walking towards the main road to get an auto for the bus-stand.

In the bus-stand another of my batchmate also joined with me and we had booked tickets in the same bus. After getting into the bus, he asked me.

"Pavala, do you know why (telling her name) was talking to  you again and again..."
"No."
"I told her that you have a crush on her..."
"But why...???"
"Just for fun..."

I never spoke with him again. Making casual comments about the looks of a person, and that too at that age, doesnt mean that I have a crush on that person. I never spoke to him all through that 12 hour journey. During that phase of my life, I was already into a critical commitment and was facing a lot of issues in my personal life. I never spoke to him till I got down from the bus and I never spoke to him till now in my life. But now I feel that I have been so immature to behave like that. If I ever meet him again, I wish to apologize for my behavior on that day.

- Pavala.