The Interview

                Well, I’ll start off by making a small confession to the loyal readers of random thoughts(if at all,there are any!)-The following post has been 'inspired' by some thought provoking,eye-opening(incase,you missed the first adjective!) real-life incidents, which may or may not mean that they actually happened in the awesomely awesome life of the infamously insane person behind this perfectly sane blog,i.e nikhimenon. Now that, I have taken the necessary anticipatory bail for the mediocricity and blandness in the upcoming lines,I think I can courageously embark on the journey of my experiments with (half) truths.

Image:bigstock.com

             This happened long ago(not as ‘long’ as you think,for nikhimenon hasn’t become a fat 90 year young man with greasy tooth and sagging ball..oops.!ball and socket joints, yet!);okay,let me be honest,this took place sometime in 2010(which also means that the world had just got an infamously handsome,brutally intelligent,painfully ignorant and compulsively sober fresh medical graduate by the name, nikhimenon).As I mentioned earlier,I had just finished my internship and was looking for a job opening in a nearby diabetic clinic so that I could earn a little bit of pocket money to take care of the petty expenses which I might encounter during the pre-pg coaching days of my life.

The ‘window period’(i.e.the time period between the receipt of my internship completion certificate and the commencement of classes at the MD/MS entrance exam coaching centre) was pretty short and like a Sunny Leone frantically trying to make as much money as possible before she turns forty,I badly wanted to join some job.Getting one at the nearby Soman’s Diabetic Clinic & Research Centre (as a duty doctor with a somewhat attractive pay)was my top priority at that point of time. Soman’s clinic was only half a kilometre away from my house(well, that was the the ‘official explanation’ I gave my mother for the ‘bias’,but actually the driving force behind my affinity towards SOMADIC-RECET was Mandakini,Dr Soman’s beautiful daughter and SOMADIC’s dutiful Public Relations Officer).

             It didn’t take me long to make a neatly typed resume(which incidentally had my ‘caste name’ and ‘unmarried’ marital status also in bold,just in case Dr Soman felt like promoting me as his son-in-law)and send it to Mandakini(she handled the ‘placement cell’ of the clinic as well).Within two days,I got an e-mail from Mandakini requesting me to attend an interview for the job.

             Like you might have guessed by now,I reached there on time(well,I was actually a couple of minutes late,fifty five minutes and thirty seconds,to be exact.Anyways, for the sake of this post,we will overlook those unnecessary details!) and was called in for interview after fifty eight minutes of wait in the lobby(the bench put near the reception counter).The delay( I couldn’t see any patients or fellow job aspirants in the nearby vicinity)was attributed to Dr Soman’s power yoga session,I was told later.

            After reminding myself not to confuse Diabetes Mellitus with Diabetes Inspidus while answering the questions of the Interview Board(frankly,I was one hundred and one percent sure that there would only be Dr Soman and no blackboard inside the dingy Cabin),I went inside his room.

“Your Name?”-Dr Soman with his typical ferocious look

“Dr Nikhimenon,Sir”

“Why did you choose SOMADIC-RECET?”

“Sir,I have come for the interview for the post of the Junior Doc,Sir.”

“Oops!Okay,Tell me something about SOMADIC-RECET”

“…….”

I started off blabbering something.The whole session felt more like a made-for-T.V social awareness docu-drama than a real life job interview with Dr Soman giving me gyaan on medical ethics,transference,doctor-patient relations and the importance of a doctor being well groomed and well mannered.I was more or less getting intoxicated and slowly but surely going to the ‘sleep’ mode with the heavy dose of life lessons,when Dr Soman suddenly threw this question at me.

“Dr Nikhimenon,How often do you shave?”

“What,sir?”

“I’m impressed with the answers which you gave me and I’m willing to appoint you here.But Will you please Shave before you come here for duty everyday?The patients don’t trust a doctor who looks shabby,unshaven and rowdy-like!”

Well,that was my enlightenment moment.With one stroke,Dr Soman not only managed to make me feel so small in front of him but also made me realise the reason behind the sudden ‘constipated and disgusted’ look on Mandakini’s face,which appeared the moment I had entered SOMADIC-RET.It was nothing other than the the untidy stubble on my face which was the cause for Mandakini’s instant dislike towards me!

I got the job in Dr Soman’s clinic and worked there for a couple of months before quitting it for my pre-pg coaching classes.Mandakini got impressed by some random person(a missed chance/opportunity for me!) from U.S and gave birth to his children(obviously!),soon after.

Whatever said and done,after the ‘SOMADIC-RET’ experience,I never forget to ask myself a simple question before I go to any job interview,

i.e- “Will You Please Shave, Dr nikhimenon?”

This post is a part of #WillYouShave activity at BlogAdda in association with Gillette'.

-nikhimenon