Aug 11, 2014

One Five-Year-Old Day

"I should not have watched a wizard story a night before my interview", Tejas muttered to himself, disbelieving what he saw in the mirror.

"How can I go like this to the interview? I look like a five-year-old kid!", he talked to his reflection. "You always wanted to be a kid, don't you?", the mirror asked in reply.

"Whatever", he gestured as if he disagreed with his own choice at the moment. "Thank God, at least I have my kid's dress to wear!", he exclaimed. He took a quick bath, wore his kid's dress and rushed to the bus stop.

"Hey kiddo, is your father coming to drop you in school?", the bus conductor asked him.

"No. Please give me a ticket to textile stop"

"Oh, so your father works there", the conductor continued handing over the ticket to him.

Tejas got down at his stop, walked towards the entrance to the company that had invited him for an interview. At the entrance, the security officer sized him up with his look and stopped him.

"Whom do you want to meet son?", the officer asked him.

"I want to meet HR manager. Please tell him I have come to attend an interview".

"Good joke kiddo. Go to school. You should not be here at this time".

"Dear Lord, how can I make him understand!", he sought out divine's intervention to bring him out from this mess.

After a brief minute, he asked, "could you please call the HR manager? Maybe I could explain to him".

Giving a confused look, the officer asked him to wait a minute, went inside and dialed an internal number from his desk. After a few minutes, he gestured Tejas to come in.

"Sir, I have a boy here, he must be five or six. He says he is here to attend an interview today!".

The HR manager must have blasted him for wasting his time with such a silly request, for a change in expression on the security officer's face was apparent.

While he was trying to pacify the manager, Tejas found an opportunity to sneak in through the entrance and ran up to the reception hall where other candidates were waiting to be interviewed.

Fortunately, nobody noticed him more than a glance. The security officer must have thought that the boy had left the place after playing a prank with him, for Tejas did not see him after he sneaked in.

After about half an hour, his name was called. Taking a deep breath, he walked into the interview hall.

"Looks like the candidate did not come to the interview today", Tejas heard one of the interviewer talking to the other. How can they see the presence of a small boy who is not even taller than their work table!

"No Sir, I am right here", he raised his voice to gather their attention.

"Who are you son? How did you get in here?"

"My name is Tejas. I am here to attend the interview today. Hearing his response, the entire committee laughed together as if they heard the joke of the year.

"Please ask me questions, then you will not laugh at me", Tejas replied.

"Let us have some fun. After all, we need some entertainment to increase our energy level", head of the interview committee said and others nodded their heads in agreement.

Tejas reply to their first question must have surprised them, for their face expression suddenly changed to become serious. Question after questions was asked and Tejas replied to most of them.

"Kid, I appreciate your knowledge. Even people with experience sometimes struggle to answer some of the questions we asked you today. However, we cannot give you a job as it is illegal", the head of the interview committee said, summing up the interview process.

Tejas returned home with disappointment. Tears filled his eyes and he sobbed continuously. He slept not knowing how to come out from his dreary world. When he got up again, it was already next morning.

Cursing his fate under his breath, he took the newspaper and went to brush his teeth. He could not contain his laughter when he read the news headlines, "Five-year-old kid aced a job interview".

When he looked at the mirror, he realized that that five-year-old kid does not exist anymore.

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.