Its been a MAD MAD week so far and the weekend just provided the fitting crazy finale. I had an interview on Monday…and Tuesday!. Before you think i am being inundated with interview calls let me clarify that both were interviews for the same job. The offer was a joint offer from a company in Maryland and a hospital in Philadelphia which meant I had to be interviewed twice at both these places.
The first interview was fun. It meant starting the week at the absurdly early hour of 6.30 a m when Seejo dropped me at the local Shady grove railway station. From there i took hhe local metro up to Union station, DC and then the AMTRAK (Acela express) to Philadelphia. The Acela express is one of the faster trains in US doing an average speed of 150mph. It felt almost like being in a plane , just it was more comfortable( read more leg room). And ALL the people were dressed in their business formals which had me thanking all my lucky stars that i decided to wear formals for the interview 🙂 .From Philadelphia station it was another local train which took me to Fox ( yes that’s right F-O-X ) Chase where the interview was…I won’t bore you with the details of the interview..Suffice to say it was not that bad! I reached Fox chase at 11 am and 2 pm found me reversing my way back in the same manner. Made up for my lack of train journeys in US in a day…6 trains in the space of 12 hours…Hows that for a Mumbaikar???
Tuesday bought forth another interview..Luckily this was in MD about a 10 minute drive from Seejo’s place so I could command chauffer service to and fro from the interview…now if only the interviewers were this accomodating!! Reached Charlottesville at night with Atha resuming his chauffer duties from the charlottesville greyhound station,,,,Boy!!! Do i have a nice set of friends!!!
Spent the rest of the week trying to gently persuade ( like beg, plead, sweet-talk,flatter ) Mark into correcting my thesis. I have to get it across to the committee by Monday evening which means in that time Mark had to understand what i had written, correct it, send it to me and I ‘d make the corrections and then he would revise it again!! But all my efforts were in vain…like the true last minute guy that he is he was impervious to all my charm for the week and finally just has started looking at the chapters….
Its Sunday evening 7 pm and we are at work …Oh well there is always the night .Whats the fun of deadlines without the last minute rush
Halleluiah!
Books:
Bought two books at the Philadelphia Amtrak station while waiting for my train…Old habits die hard 😉 ..Read both within 24 hours!
The bluest eye: Toni Morrison : Its an ok book but somehow all the books of African American women authors are beginning to seem repetitive to me. Alice walker, Maya Angelo, Toni Morrison all have different writing styles, different means but somehow the basic stories is the same….and it is depressing as hell.
Sexing the cherry: Jeanette Winterson by Priya’s recommendation…Its a terrific horrific mad bad crazy hazy book….Go read it if you haven’t and then tell me about it!
Movies:
Seejo’s DVD collection was richer by an old Amitabh movie this time…
Naseeb: It was one of the earliest movies I have ever seen so it had a lot of nostalgic value. But then again seeing Shatrughan do all those macho hero stunts was definitely worth a repeat viewing!
Paroma: Aparna Sen directs Rakhee in this movie regarding an extra marital affair between an older married housewife with a young photographer. Not bad.
Saaz: Nice movie with again older woman younger man romance …….J
Websites:
http://madman.weblogs.com/2002/08/06
While we are on interviews here is a list of stupid questions asked my most interviewers,,,,Needless to say I was asked most of these too
Quote Of the Week:
A perfect method for adding drama to life is to wait until the deadline looms large.
Alyce P. Cornyn-Selby, Procrastinator’s Success Kit
Just an end note:
This post is truly different from the previous mails. And that is because I am typing this mail sitting at my house. Atha just got a new comp for himself …So i am going to be online all the time (Can i hear people saying…so when were you offline earlier??)
