Everything happens for the good

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AC - Story Telling (Project II)
Lets get personal
June 20, 2008

Do you believe that everything in the world happens for the good?

Do you remember that long weekend drive? You were driving a rental vehicle. No matter how hard you press the gas pedal, the speedometer doesn't cross the 65 mph mark. A dude in his early 20s, zooms in front of you in his convertible and vanishes from your eyes, in no time. You feel bad about your inability to drive fast. You cross a few miles. You see the same convertible pulled over to the roadside. There is also a cop vehicle with glazing lights standing next to the convertible. Yes. The dude got a speeding ticket. You are happy that you weren't able to drive fast.

Think about the people who survived on 9/11 because they missed their flights by a few minutes, which later crashed into the Twin Towers.

We get frustrated when things do not happen the way we expect. We loose hope. But, everything in this world happens for the good. Today, I'm going to share a story from my personal life.

It was 1998 - the last year of my under graduate program. Like most of you, I had a dream company in my mind, to work for, after my studies. My close friends were also interested to get a job offer from this company. We were eagerly waiting for this company to show up for campus recruitment. We had always dreamed about getting a job in this company, going to BANGALORE, renting a house and starting our new life. The company is WIPRO TECHNOLOGIES. WIPRO is one of the top 3 software companies in India.

It was the 21st of April 1998. My friends & I were eagerly waiting for this day for almost 4 years. We were so excited to hear that WIPRO is in our campus. We worked hard and prepared well, to get into WIPRO. We dressed up well - wearing neatly ironed formal pant & shirt. I was wearing a light blue shirt, a dark blue pant and a red tie.

I was waiting outside the interview hall for my turn to be called. I was carrying a file in my hand with my resume, mark sheets and other certificates. I prayed to God several times while waiting outside the interview hall. There are two rounds of interviews - technical round & a HR round. I was short listed to take the HR interview first. My name was called. I entered the interview room.

It was a small room. The room was air-conditioned. It had an oval table and a few chairs. I could smell the fragrance of the lavender air freshener inside the room.

The HR person in his mid 40s, welcomed me. He resembled Cliff to some extent. He was tall and fair. He was wearing a black coat and a yellow tie. He appeared to be a tough person.

He asked a few questions like what my strengths are, what I want to be in the next 5 years etc., We both talked for about 1/2 hour. He concluded the interview and thanked me for my time. Somehow, I felt that the HR person wasn't very happy with my interview performance. I had a technical interview after that and I extremely did well.

My friends also had completed their interviews by that time. We were all eagerly waiting for the results of the interview. The HR person came out of the interview hall with a list in his hand. He started reading the names of the people who got selected. The student crowd cheered-up after each name was read. I eagerly waited for my name to be announced. The HR person read about 20 names and said that is the end of the list. All my friends' names were there. But my name was not there in the list. I was very disappointed. I was hoping that the HR person would say "Sorry! I missed out one person's name. It is Saro Velrajan". But the HR person didn't do that. I was glad that my friends got their dream job, but sad that I didn't get mine.

I didn't know what to do. All along, I hadn't thought about joining a different company than WIPRO. My dream was shattered into pieces, like a beautiful teapot dropped from the mountain top. I don't know how to fix the pieces together. I didn't sleep throughout that night, thinking about my failure.

Months ran. We finished our studies. My friends went to BANGALORE and joined WIPRO. As we had planned earlier, they rented a home and stayed together.

I moved to my hometown. I got a job from another software company that was close to my home. I missed my friends. But I didn't loose hope. I continued to work hard and started liking my new company. A year later, my company announced that they are going for IPO (Initial Public Offering). For those who are not familiar, they were preparing to go take the company public. I was given some stock option papers at the time of joining the company. I didn't know what stock options were, at that time. But my colleagues said, when the company goes IPO you can make a lot of money from the stock options. The company's IPO was very successful. I made lots of money in just 3 years of joining the company.

My friends who joined WIPRO weren't happy with their salaries and moved to other companies in 2 years. I was happy that I wasn't selected by WIPRO in campus recruitment. Had I joined WIPRO, I would've missed this "once in a lifetime" opportunity. If I think about it now, I feel that it was good that I didn't perform well in the HR interview in 1998. I now believe "Everything happened for the good".

So, Ladies & Gentlemen,

The next time you miss a flight, the next time you loose a job - Remember, "Everything happens for the good".

Quite often you may face tough times in life. You may hate yourself and the world around you. Be patient and don't loose your hope. There is something better that waits for you in the future. "Everything happens for the good".