The sea god was soaring at his best; eddies and the dimples of tide were playing around the bows of ship, for some time I enjoyed observing the mid sea whirlpools and for some more time I gazed at the blanched sky to find the nothingness except fleecy clouds. When the reverberating noise of cranks from twenty cylinder engine along with the ocean sounds made soothing symphony I tried to sing till I realized that there was none to listen except meters and multiple desktop screens. I tried my best in all possible ways to elude my confinement in a small control room of big engine room but the loneliness just like a storm in ocean caused the floods of thoughts about my past and destiny.
I became frustrated for failing in all three consecutive core job interviews when all of my friends were able to make it through campus recruitment. I was known as technical savvy in our class and even our class topper used to come to me for clarifying his doubts. I had never imagined myself without being placed especially after having had 8+ GPA and lot of other credentials. Not entirely true to my apprehension I could get one job finally at the end of our final sem!!! I was the last one among fifty to be placed but only one to get jackpot. Yes, ironically I got a job in IOCL (Indian Oil Corporation Ltd), one of the most lucrative jobs offered in our campus.
When I shared my triumph with my family they celebrated it with the whole village as if they reaped the rewards of all their twenty years of hard work. My uncle who was delighted by my success had announced me as a best choice to his beautiful daughter. But it was not much longer did I realize that the destiny had the role to play it again. I was assigned a job of maintaining a petrol bunk (outlet) on a highway somewhere in remote area of Assam where my duty was to audit the daily cash and oil consumption. Moreover my boss whose attitude was domineering and overbearing was unbearable. Soon I became spiritless and wondered why they required a mechanical engineer from one of the premier institutes in the country for a clerical kind of job. One day I happened to attend a seminar on ‘self realization’ by a famous management guru and then decided to call a quit my permanent job for pursuing the noble profession of Teaching. But it was not easy as I expected to get a teaching job considering my inexperience and qualification. I had to sit idly for more than two months at home by listening to my family woes and my uncle’s nit-picking. Somehow I got a call from CBIT for the position of Lecturer to guide and help students in their technical projects but the monthly pay was not even half of my previous paycheck. I grabbed the offer with both hands and tried to help the students in their technical work. The ‘Sir’ job lasted for another six months until I met one of my childhood friends in a train to Mumbai for student hybrid car project presentation in IIT fest. In return to Hyderabad I had to meet my friend in Pune and he took me to Lonavala for outing where my next future was destined to begin. Then and there I came to know about the SIMS (merchant navy school) in Lonavala through my friend and understood about the life of adventurous voyage. May be it was ordained but I have seen my future and made a determination to join in that school. In a month when I was selected to SIMS through national wide entrance exam my uncle who had been thinking of my wedlock with her daughter till then could not bet on my capricious nature and married her to a nice gentle man against to my wish.
After one year of education, six months of vigorous training and grooming I was on a ship for my first assignment to Europe. And soon I was absorbed by a multinational company with six digit salary in dollars and promised to give perks for my work. But I know it’s futile to think much about my future as MOIRAI will have a role to play again.
Sree…
