August 9- A turning point
Finally the most awaited day has come!!!!!!! Phew, a semester long hard work comes to an end with a lucrative reward. I am IN!!!! In the top 150 students from various disciplines selected for POT 2010. Interestingly its not because am strong in aptitude but coz am strong in decision making, a decision “Yes Sir I can” made at one point of my life ended me standing here on stage before the student community with delegates from various companies.
It was not long back when I was sitting in Mr. Anil Nair’s (you must be knowing him or pls do try to know him) class asking him “If I start a web designing company as a student initiative, can I put it in my resume” and the answer was “Can I be your first Client”. That’s how it all got started. The same day ,me and a very great friend of mine, Sebin, were sitting together in the sit out of my home discussing on taking up this offer or not. We were a little scared of taking up this as we didn know Mr Nair personally.
“Yeah Ajoy, Come in, your friend eh?” Yes, it was the next day. Nair Sir was sitting with a cigarette in one hand, a pen in the other.
“Sir, this is Sebin.P.Jose, he will help me in this project.” I introduced him. I found he was finding it hard to memorize our names
“Hi Sebin, I think you guys will help me out, I will tell my needs”
Then we spoke with him for an hour and that was our first discussion, quite unsatisfactory. And in a couple of days, we had started working.
“That ______ , he is a born criminal” the first words which always comes out from Nair Sir whenever we meet. Mr _____ owns a web designing company and Anil Nair had entrusted him this job previously. But Nair Sir felt he was cheated and that made him not to go after any more web designing companies.
“Will you become another Mr _______?”
“Sir, I…..We….not like that” Why can’t sir ever believe me
“We are students and not business men” Sebin murmured.
Months went by. We struggled a lot, we had college works in parallel. If hard work were really a virtue, then we would be saints. Finally it all got over. It was time for getting a domain name.
“Jeril Chetta, How to get a domain, can you help me” Does he knows everything, God Knows!!
Jeril was a senior in my school, a family friend too, who was of a great help to me.
“Yeah Ajoy, try GoDaddy, it’s a good one to get a domain”
Meetings with Nair Sir became frequent. My impression on him started changing. Is he a nice man, he has a heart I suppose. Every time, he takes us for a tea and also gets us something to bite. He will be as usual, a cigarette in one hand and a tea on the other. Gosh, biscuits go with tea but do cigarettes? May be he enjoys it!!!
“Yeah Boys!! You can have anything”
“No Sir, we….” Cant he take to some Pizza Hut??
“Arre Baba, No need for formalities”
“Thank you sir, I will just have a coffee” and the relationship with him strengthened.
Finally the work was over. Sir was exited on seeing our work and gave us the first installment of the amount which was fixed earlier. We had hosted it on a free hosting service. All worked well. We got rest of the amount. Later on many more updates were done.
Finally the day for releasing the site came. We had finished all the works on our side. In the morning, news papers lying before the door had a new feel since there were ads of Zoom Consultancy. We were happy. The day went fine but in the evening on my return from college, I was startled. Many miss calls from Nair Sir. I called him back.
“Ajoy, I need to meet you in person, am coming to kavundampalayam”
“Sure Sir” Good God, What is he up to? I won’t invite him to my home!! Never!!
The problem was the site had crashed, It was not opening. He was so angry.
“Because of you people, my credibility is at stake”
“Sir, we did everything correctly but….”
“But ??”
“I don’t know…”
He took us to a hotel and brought us dinner. He had his share from my plate.
“If you don’t set it right by tomorrow morning, you will see the other face of Anil Nair”
“Sir….”
“I warn you”
“Okay Sir okay” Now what am I to do?
That night was unforgettable. On my way back home, I felt the cold wind tearing through my skin. The words “You will see the other face of Anil Nair” was echoing in my ears. We decided to host it again but this time on a reliable paid hosting service. I reached home, took my credit card, packed my things for the next day and started to Sebin’s home. His mom prepared a hot coffee to help us fight our enemy ‘the sleep’. After some time I found myself listening to the ticking of the clock, I looked up; it was 4’o clock. Our site was being loaded. I could hear my heart beat. The hosting account was brought using my credit card and if the site did not work, doomed. My God, My Money!! But our worries came to an end and celebrations started when the site got loaded and it worked well. So finally by 5 am we went to sleep. I woke up by 6.30 and got ready for college while Sebin slept off. He bunked the class that day. I was confident that my staff would help me in compensating the sleep I sacrificed.
As the Shakespeare’s play says “All’s well that ends well” till this date, by God’s grace, there were no problem on the website. Today I stand here beside Anil Nair and in front of lot others to testify John Capuzzi’s words “A free lunch is only found in mousetraps” Our hard work with dedication finally earned us profit and fame. By now you might want to take a look of what I was saying all this time, if so just visit www.fresherszoom.org
