Chapter 12: Dreams and Nightmares
Dreams do not necessarily become reality and I was not late in realizing this. Within a few days after reaching Bombay I got to know the real face of Bombay or Mumbai as it is now called. The city Bombay is very different from Delhi. At times it appeared so lively and at other times it seemed to be so numb. Each person was engrossed in their life rarely bothering or interested in someone or something else. The colossal crowds enthralled and captivated my imagination yet I was bored of this hypnosis. I eagerly wanted to return to Delhi but I was here to prove myself and I had to.
Survival in Bombay is not at all easy. Everyone wants to become part of this city yet few actually become. The local trains almost killed me with an over excessive crowd and the long distances made me dog-tired. Initially I had to put up with my uncle till I get a decent place to live, but even before that I had to get articleship at a firm.
I made frequent rounds of few prospective firms. While moving from pillar to post I came to know of the concept of BIG 4. These are high profile firms and an articleship from these places can prove instrumental in achieving greatness and immortality at least in the CA circles. You become Wealthy and Wise if you could add them to your resume. But these firms, the so called elites of our profession had strict selection criteria. They either relied on the number of attempts at each level or any reference from some worthy individual. But I had nothing; neither a good score, many attempts and no references. A person taking more than one attempt was not usually welcomed. But I fail to understand their criteria, for according to me higher the number of attempts more would be the knowledge (after all reading something for more than once would increase the knowledge).
All these firms had stylish names and foreign connection e.g. Price Waterhouse Coopers, Delloite, Ernst & Young etc etc. unlike their local Indian counterparts which always boasted the various permutations and combinations of funny names or even funnier surnames of the partners. As the readers would have guessed I never got to see the doors of THE BIG 4.
I got the articleship in D&G although it appears as the world famous brand of ‘Dolce & Gabbana’, it stood for Desai and Gupta. It was a good firm considering the fact I did not get selected.
My interview was taken by Paritosh Patel. Interview was funny I was hardly able to understand Mr. Patel not because I found the questions difficult but because of the fact that his voice was really shrill and his English which was disaster. Yet he was so found of the language that he never and mind you never would speak in any language except English. He selected me in the interview I thought I was lucky but actually he selected all the 5 people who appeared for the interview. I guess no one wanted to join them.
My office was in Nariman Point and it was not that far from my uncle’s place. My first day at office was not exceptional but yes it was eventful. At the reception I was welcomed by Geeta, the receptionist, she looked like a vamp of some stupid Saas-Bahu serial and in due course I realized she was a real life vamp too. But without revealing her villainy now I would stick to guided tour of the office.
The office was full of small & by small I mean really small cubicles where everyone had a work area where nothing except huge & by huge I mean really huge pile of papers were lying. Then I was taken to meet the boss Mr. Alok Gupta (although the name was not scary but the boss was). He was this really big gigantic guy and had the most sarcastic smile in the world. With his brusque physique and garish mannerisms he appeared to me Gabbar Singh and the whole office as ravines of Chambal. The office hardly had female populace, only Geeta at the reception and Tripti, one more articled clerk, a senior of mine, represented Basanti.
I was given this very small area near the coffee vending machine; this area was always surrounded by people. Initially I felt skeptical but then I became accustomed to it. Within an hour I was given the work of vouching, to all those who fail to understand the term it like playing the role of a teacher who checks your paper the only difference we use an inverted sign of tick. That day I was made to do vouching the full day and I kept on doing it for consecutively for many days.
The lunch hour was exciting; I went out with Kripal and Samir. For all three of us it was the first day. Samir suggested that we should have Thali at The MLA’s hostel canteen. The MLA’s hostel had a great canteen and the food there was not very expensive albeit for MLA’s it was almost free unlike rest of us. The canteen was almost a kilometer away from our office; by the time we came back we were late by 10 minutes. Few minutes after reaching the office we were called by Mayank Suri, he was the left hand of Gabbar, and we realized it soon that our journey in this office would not be as simple as it appeared. A warning was issued to us regarding the time limits of the office. We should reach the office at 10 a.m exact and then the lunch break at 1:30pm which was only for half an hour and the office closed at 6p.m.
Having warned us of the dire consequences of unpunctual behavior we were given instructions about the do’s and don’ts of the office. Mayank Suri was an un-identical clone of Mr.Alok Gupta. They were almost similar except for their appearances. They had a mutual admiration society, (Suri as we called him at his back, was the biggest sycophant of Gupta). To me the office now appeared as a suffocating place but at least I started my articleship, I thought. But before I could rejoice my articleship we were told by the administrative staff the whole lengthy procedure in which we had to fill our articleship forms.
The first day was now nearing its end; I was exhausted and wanted to reach home. I started winding up at 6, but then I had to say bye to Suri before I could leave. I never thought how long it can take to say a simple bye. But that day I realized we should never underestimate anything even a bye. Suri said he was busy and that I had to wait for him, he made all the new articles wait till 6:45 in the evening and for the next 15minutes we were given another sermon about discipline.
Beginning at 7:02 from office and reaching Churchgate by 7:47, I boarded the train at 8:04, and reached my uncle’s house at 8:50. Many of you might be thinking about the timing details that I letting out right now but it functions this way. Every minute is important and every minute pays. All the dreams of having an independent life were transforming into the nightmares of my lonely existence in this swarming yet solitary city.
