The Sambar Connection

“Dey Bandi! What the hell are you doing? Get out now and don’t forget to bring along your wallet”. I quickly jumped up to open the door to find Anand, Chaks (Chakravarthy) and a few other classmates screaming in joy just outside my hostel-room door. Anand was still breathless, having run all the way from the main administration building to our dormitory, a good half-mile away on the campus of REC Warangal.

Several of my MCA classmates interviewed with Ramco Systems for a campus placement earlier in the day and the news was that four of us (Banu, MRK, Thiru and myself) had been offered jobs as well as industrial training as part of our final semester course work.

I was not sure if I should celebrate or suspect that I was being pranked. So I put on some formal clothes and ran back to the admin building, but the interviewers had already left the campus to catch the Charminar Express which would take them back to Chennai. But there it was; a printed announcement pinned to the Notice Board just outside the placement officer’s cabin:

Regional Engineering College, Warangal

Campus Selections - 1994

Ramco Systems

1. Banushankar V (MCA)

2. Krishnan MR (MCA)

3. Thirumaran E (MCA)

4. Satya Muralidhar B (MCA)

The adrenaline rush subsided, and I just sat down on the steps of the placement office, overcome by a mix of emotions – joy, excitement, satisfaction, exhaustion and more importantly a sense of relief.

Relief, after the drama of a few highs but many more lows over the past 5 years, all of which played back in my mind as I sat there on the steps. I was good at academics and extracurricular activities throughout high school but Intermediate education was a completely different game. Gone were the strict timetabled classes and gone were strict teachers who kept a close watch on your progress. Entered the need to go to private tuitions alongside the erratic college classes. Entered the constant interruptions of student politics and strikes. Entered the seduction of movie theatres and the new-found freedom of youth.

Somewhere during this time I lost my way, and while I scored decent marks in the intermediate examinations, I failed to secure a good rank in the highly competitive Engineering Entrance Test; not once but twice. Up in smoke went my, and more importantly my parents’, dreams of me succeeding in the prestigious IAS exams.

It was a hard landing back on earth and I humbly resumed studying for a BSc at VR College. Once again, I scored decently well but again success eluded me in securing a place to study MSc, until RECW offered me a place on their MCA Course. Over several years, many MCA students, myself included, found the Logical Organisation of Computers (LOC) paper hard to crack and I ended up scoring just 1 out of 30 marks in the first mid semester examination. But my classmates, mainly Sudhakar, Kalidas, Banu, MRK, Anand and Chakravarthy helped me pull myself back together and I coasted along well for the remaining four semesters.

The return to the campus in July 1994 for the 5^th semester was less than joyful. Several of my classmates would not stop talking about their summer work experience while a handful of us would avoid the topic or go quiet, having failed to get any.

Then rolled along the campus interviews. Engineering students at REC Warangal had an impressive track record of securing places in PG Courses and jobs at reputed companies. Computer Science, Mechanical, Chemical, Electronics and Electrical Engineering students scored very well, and MCA Students did alright. The IT Services sector was just opening up and the general consensus was that I would get selected by TCS, who were already recruiting by the dozens.

Most campus interviews happened on Saturdays and that year Ramco Systems was one of the early companies to visit our campus. I planned to appear for the process to gain some experience before TCS would visit us.

The day did not start well. We woke up to a power failure on the campus. Apparently, something had blown up in the sub-station, so it was a cold-water shower to start the day. I had a quick breakfast at the mess and put on crisply pressed trousers, a white shirt, newly polished shoes, and I had to beg Anand and Banu to help me with my tie before I arrived at the seminar hall for the written test.

The test had Reasoning, Maths, Vocabulary, and some computing related questions. In line with my low expectations, shortly after the test I retired back to my room after lunch and was about to commence my Saturday post-lunch siesta.

However, soon the word came back that I was shortlisted and had to report back for a Group Discussion. I was quite confident that it was a mistake that I got through the first stage, but I would surely not go past the next stage and could resume my afternoon nap soon. However, the interviewers decided to skip the group discussion process and go ahead with the solo interviews.

I was given a tentative slot of around 4.30 PM and the panic set in. “What do I read? How do I prepare? Which subject should I receive?”- a zillion thoughts were racing through my head. Then came the news; the interviewers, for some reason were breezing past the interviews with the under graduates and they were only going to select from the PG students, so we all need to report back to the placement office immediately.

I reached the interview area along with my other classmates and waited for my turn. The interviews were getting longer and longer, and I was growing nervous by the minute. Power was finally restored, and I got called in at around 5.30 PM. As I was about to enter the room, I was asked to wait a little longer as the interviewers were taking a comfort break. Eventually, half an hour later, I got called in again and gingerly entered the room, which was chilly thanks to the air conditioner, to face the interview panel, made up of Kamesh Ramamoorthy (Executive), JS Shiva Kumar (HR) and Kannan (Technical Manager).

Early introductions were interrupted by the arrival of piping hot coffee. I do not know if it was courtesy or a sense of guilt, but the panellists asked me if I would like to have a cup of coffee. Ever a sucker for good coffee, more so if it is free, I said “Yes”. The person who was serving the refreshments could not believe what he had just heard, but nevertheless got me a cup, the look on his face still incredulous.

Kamesh fired the first question. “What is your favourite language?”. We had already heard from the previous interviewees that the panel were interested in C and C++, but I was not sure if I had the depth of knowledge to answer their questions. “Natural or Programming?”, I replied. “Why would you ask that?”, Kamesh enquired. “I wanted to clarify because you are looking at my CV, which says I speak 4 languages”, I offered. “You think you are smart? Computer languages of course” pat came the counter.

But by then I had figured out my answer, “Pascal”. Kamesh was intrigued by that and asked why. I replied, “Pascal is my computing mother tongue, being the first language I learnt and it is very structured”. Kamesh let it pass with a smile on his face; or was it a smirk?

I only remember a couple of the other questions. Kannan asked, “What is YACC” and I was clueless so tried to deflect by asking if he was referring to a yak, but he confirmed he was asking about ‘Yet Another Compiler-Compiler’ something to do with the UNIX Operating System. Shivakumar asked me if I was confident that I would get selected and I replied, “of course, yes”.

When I stepped out of the interview, some of my waiting classmates mobbed me and were curious to know what took me so long. I was told it was one of the longest interviews of the day lasting for more than 30 minutes. I was by then supremely confident that I did not help my case with my cheeky responses, so retired back to the dormitory to finally have my nap.

Even now, a quarter of a century later, I still think of that interview and still wonder why I got selected. I did not get to know Kannan well as he left Ramco soon after I joined, while Kamesh was a senior colleague for most of the 12 years I worked for Ramco systems and I knew also got to know Shivakumar well.

I ended up in IT Services having failed to become an engineer or an IAS Officer. Several of my friends from that time became successful doctors, engineers, and academics. Occasionally, it still hurts somewhere deep in my heart when I think of those missed opportunities. But this career gave me an opportunity to work with some of the smartest people in the industry, see the world and learn from those experiences. I do not think I can ever thank my parents enough for their compassion, support, and encouragement through that decade of hits and misses.

By the next morning, Ramco’s selection had become the talk of the campus. Thought-provoking and profound debates ensued and several theories were floated: Ramco, being a product-development company wanted people who would work long term with them and not just resign to pursue higher education, either in India or abroad. Then came the question, why these four? One theory that gained ground was that we all belonged to Chennai but that soon ran into question because I was not. So, a new addendum got added – “Bandi is from Nellore, which is close to Chennai, he tries to speak Tamil (badly) and he likes Sambar with his idlies”.

Aaha! The Sambar Connection was thus established!