This is all about a good read. This is one of the most interesting reads I have had for ages. I love his travelogues as he calls it. And, hell yeah, I enjoy his guitaring… None other than Desp Satriani – the one and only Govindan Potti. He’s the lead guitarist of Transmigration, and one of the closest pals I have. =) There is this spark of a writing genius inside him. I am trying to get the first travelogue that he had written and will put it asap. Till then, enjoy this piece of writing

=============================================

Hi everybody…

This is my second travelogue (if u r kind enuf to call it so!!!). This time its not SSB but a jobfair. Anyway this time also it has an employment rapport.

A lot of jobless fellows in campus were excited to see the ad of Jobfair that will be conducted by CTS and ‘The Hindu- Opportunities’ on 26th and 27th in Coimbatore.It clearly specified ‘final year’ students can also apply.All of us started preparing for the tests too.We bought ‘Cambridge’ trousers and ‘DH’ shirts for the interviews.

All of us were shocked to see last thursday’s (24-02-05) ‘The Hindu’ supplements.Thirty plus companies had given their ads in which they specified the requirements and qualifications they were looking forward to.It broke our hearts into several pieces.Most of the firms wanted only experienced candidates and those who wanted final years just needed a candidate from any discipline and even +2-undergraduates.

“Tell a man there’re 300 billion stars in the universe and he’ll believe it. Tell him a bench has wet paint on it and he’ll have to touch to be sure.�

GODSPEED…..

It is true.We were not driven back by those ads.We wanted to make it sure and boarded the train ‘Sabari Xpress’ on 25th morning(7 am).It was really an arid journey.’Puzzles to puzzle you’ by Sakuntala Devi found itself resting in peace even before the train reached Mavelikkara.The heat evoked the journey via Andhra Pradesh while returning from Bhopal (ref:last travelogue).Sweat exuded out and succumbed to the heat.To cap it all, innumerable cockroaches infested through out the coach.(Next time on “Sabari” i’ll surely take with me, one or two of big spiders from my bathroom which devour cockroaches,to maintain a balance in the train environment).I wonder why the TTRs are not eager to fine them all, albeit more than two have gone through our tickets.

Finally the train reached Coimbatore at 4.45Pm. The station is not as big as Chennai Central.Our friends in Coimbatore came,picked us and took us to their place.Time was 5.00 pm and it meant congested roads.

“Why they call it rush hour when nothing moves?”

We were taken to their house at a place called Lion’s stop near Hopes junction, where we could see ‘Medical College’ and some other famous educational institutions ( unfortunately i didnt take down the names and i dont remember them now).It was a nice location distant from every city affairs.Lot of pea-cocks trudged around their house casting amorous glances on their female counter parts.Our friends informed us that, the place we were standing was once an untouched bush region and those peacocks were there from the get go and it seemed they are not ready to devolve their arena to anybody.The local people there do respect them and never harm those innocent and innocuous birds.

That night we went out and roamed the city.We went to ‘Gandhipuram’, a nice little town were we had our dinner. Then we went back home and after wasting some time watching television we went to bed.

D-Day has arrived (26-02-05).Everybody had bath and got dressed in formals.We went to Hopes and had our breakfast.All the busses en-route to Codissia were inundated with candidates.After waiting for sometime we found it was a Herculian task to get ourselves into any of those vehicles. So we hired a taxi-cab and headed to Codissia complex. Two kilometers from Hopes we found ourselves drifting between a multitude of cars and autos.The driver confessed his inablity to move the car any further.So we got out and started walking.We were shocked by the 1 to 1.5 km long queue that appeared to be longer than the queue in SabariMala.Without hesitation we joined that human chain.It started moving very slowly like a python with a heavy prey in its belly.After one hour in the queue we could see, at a distance, the great Codissia Complex.It seemed to be a huge monster opened its mouth to imbibe everybody who got there.There was an initial registration and then we got inside the complex.

The story changed inside the building.About twenty to thirty stalls were there but surrounded and blinde by thousands of unemployed youth.Literally, there was not enough space for sand, if dropped, to reach the floor.Should the heat be mentioned, With tucked in formals and shoes? Outside the hall,in the queue which led to the complex we were praising the organizers for managing this much candidates thronged the place.Once inside we found ‘all that glitters are not gold’.We really thought we will soon reach Almighty’s sanctum and we bagan envisaging our funerals.

Somehow we managed to deposit our resume on HSBC stall.Then a ‘human tsunami’ hit and washed away all of us into different corners.As we got drowned in that human sea submitting resume seemed a pipe dream.But fortuitously we could submit our resumes in most of the stalls.Albeit they didnt want any final years, they took our resumes as if to console and to express genuflection for our great adventure.We submitted our resumes on Nipuna( A Satyam co),Wipro BPO,Office Tiger,Getit,CTS… other than our debut stall HSBC.

At around 2.30 pm we extricated ourselves from that pandemonium.As we had with us mobile phones we could meet at in front of the complex, though with much difficulty.Then we waved bye to Codissia,went to Hopes, had our lunch and returned to our sojourn.

We started our return journey at 5.30 pm.First of all we went to Ukkadam where we could find lot of second sale books for promising prices.Some of us spend lot of money there and boarded a bus to Palakkad at 7.30.At around 9.00 pm we reached Palakkad and felt releaved to land great God’s own country.At 10.30 our return journey started in Amrita express.

I started reading one of those books from Ukkadam – the controversial ‘The DA VINCI CODE’.I dont remember how many pages i could go through.When i got up it was 5.00 am in the morning and we had reached ‘Quilon’.The book was still open and i could see the heading ‘chapter two’ staring at me.

For any Jobfair- “think twice before you leap”

— Govindan potti

=============================================

Herez a recent snap of Potti