Misquoted...

"So..You wanna leave all these..and a pay cheque at the end of every month and study for 2 years??" With that she did a sweeping action across the room with her hands. All I could see in that otherwise empty board room was some cluttered chairs, a white board with words 'synergy', 'effective work', 'people centric', 'soft skills' and more such 'management' words written on them. I didn't think I would miss that.. Thru the glass walls of the room, I could see people poking at keyboards.. Most of them bespectacled.. None of them looked as if having a great time.

I was having my 'Associate Expectation Feedback' meeting. Fancy name for a talk where they try to bully/cajole/coax/blackmail/beg u to stay back in the company. But they knew it was useless with me.. I had made up my mind. Have had enough staring into black and green screens. In one moment of frustration I think I even said I wanted to play with some other type of software...called ideas. But then, what is so new abt a engineering-graduate-of-any-college-with-any-specialization-turned-software-engineer-aspiring-for-better/MBA/Onsite situation? Me?? I am the MBA variety.Nothing else will do.

So I hoped and prayed ..and maybe studied at times too, for a miracle which would entitle me for a seat for an MBA course in IIM.. ButI guess GOD was listening a bit too hard.. He gave me something more.. A seat in IIT-M. (its just an alphabet more...The rest is ranging from mediocre to better than average).

"How did u find ur tenure with us?".. I cut short my flashback to concentrate on the question at hand. RS, the one who is taking my feedback is looking at me quizzically.. "good, very good, extremely satisfying".. She went on..

"OK-ish.. I suppose, I don't have any major grievances", i replied.
She looked real happy to hear that. "ha !" ..and made a tick against 'extremely satisfied'..

"How was the office atmosphere like?? friendly?Colleagues??" she probed..
"Well.. i wasn't sexually harrassed..but with frequent shifting of teams and practically no team activities, i barely know the names of all my team mates to call them friends".

'hmm.." and she wrote something in the book, which turned out to be 'Atmosphere in office highly conducive for effective work and extremely safe for female associates'.

"That's....thats not what i meant"....i protested mildly. "This is just for official purposes. u go on.tell me, y exactly are u resigning?"

I wondered if saying the reason of higher studies a couple of times more would make her believe that i am quitting coz i really do want to be unemployed for 2 years and not coz i have some better job offer in my kitty.

"Coz i got into IIT-Madras for MBA". i replied with a straight face.
"Good. good. and ur native place is quite closer to Madras,right? Isnt that y u r leaving? Closer home? eh?"
i thought i would give in.. i had a good mind to tell her that even if the institute was in Jammu & Kashmir, i would have gone.. but then, that would lead to further qns...
"Yes.. quite close by.. i can just jump over" ..
"Ah"and she wrote next to reason for resignation as 'want to be closer to home'. (What am i? A homing pigeon?).

"Would u be coming back? After you are done?" (done what?? being closer home??)
"i dont suppose so"
"No? Dont u like it here?" ..she looked insulted. And genuinely disappointed that i wont be coming back...
"Uh..coz this is basically a s/w company. There is nothing much for an Management graduate to do here.. i have talked to some in this company itself and ..they say, they dont even have a job"...

"mm..ok". she said finally..Finally, i could get my point across.. was gonna give myself a pat on the shoulder I when i saw the entry on the form 'wanna work in small management companies rather than big technology driven ones'.. hmmph..

"Why did u write it that way?" i couldn't control myself any longer..
"Well.. if we cant help our attrition rates, atleast the associate satisfaction survey should show a rosy picture.. " she smiled beatifically, wished me a good day and left...